Yusuke, The Girl, The Slave
by Saria19
Summary: AU In a new twist of fate, Yusuke is actually a girl. Toguro has kidnapped and enslaved her, making her life a living hell. Who will rescue her from this mess?
1. Default Chapter

SA has been really helpful! Now without further ado..  
  
Tori: Saria doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho...  
  
SA: And she never will!  
  
Saria: But the female Yusuke is my creation.  
  
DARK DECISION, HIDDEN SECRETS  
  
Yusuke laughed as she watched Kuwabara make a fool of  
  
himself as he tried to describe Yukina to his curious  
  
friends. Just a few days ago they had rescued Yukina  
  
from Tarukanea and the Toguro brothers. They had  
  
returned Yukina to the ice world on her request  
  
immediately, and Kuwabara had been sullen at first  
  
when they got back, but he seemed fine now.  
  
Yusuke shook her head, her real face hidden by the  
  
boy mask that she used to hide her identity, and  
  
surpressed another snicker as she began to walk away.  
  
Kuwabara, oddly enough, noticed her leaving and moved  
  
to follow.  
  
Things were odd now, especially since Kuwabara was  
  
now aware of her secret that she was a female. He had  
  
grabbed her by the shirt during the last mission and  
  
in what was probably his smartest moment ever, had  
  
kept his big mouth shut. That brought the number of  
  
people who knew that Yusuke was a girl up Koenma,  
  
Botan, Kurama, Hiei, Genkai, and now Kuwabara. She  
  
doubted that her mom remembered she had a daughter,  
  
she was so boozed up all the time.  
  
Yusuke sighed inwardly and continued her way through  
  
the shopping area that she used as a short cut home,  
  
noting that all the shop owners went out of their way  
  
to stand in front of their doors to insure that she  
  
knew she wasn't welcome in their stores. She couldn't  
  
help but laugh when she noticed that even the owner of  
  
the pet supply shop had parked it in front of the  
  
door, what could she possibly do with little squeaky  
  
toys?  
  
Yusuke was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn't  
  
notice the black car or the motorcycle that were  
  
following her.  
  
---------------------  
  
That night, after kicking her mother's cross-dressing  
  
friends out of the apartment, pounding one into a  
  
bloody pulp for attempting to grope her, cleaning the  
  
place a little, and eating a bowl of ramen, Yusuke got  
  
ready for bed.  
  
Pulling of her that she constantly wore anymore, she  
  
gave her long pink hair a quick brush before pulling  
  
on a pair of yellow pajamas. After giving the  
  
apartment a quick once over to insure that if the CPA  
  
pulled a surprise search they'd pass, Yusuke climbed  
  
into her futon. It had been a long day.  
  
---------------------  
  
Outside however, another black car, almost Hummer  
  
size, had pulled up in front of the apartment. A dark  
  
figure opened the side door and climbed out of the  
  
vehicle followed closely by another.  
  
"Are you sure about this?" the second fiugre asked.  
  
"Quite," the first replied.  
  
"Fine, I'll back you up by coming from the other  
  
side." said the second.  
  
"Good, make sure no one leaves," the first said as he  
  
began to trek up the stairs toward the third floor and  
  
Yusuke's apartment.  
  
---------------------  
  
Yusuke suddenly found herself awake, a horrible  
  
feeling of foreboding seemed to hover in the air,  
  
making it heavier than normal. A glance around the  
  
room told her that the danger wasn't in here, and  
  
something inside her said that the danger wasn't in  
  
the apartment, but it was present and it was  
  
approaching.  
  
Jumping out of her futon, Yusuke made for the door,  
  
completely forgetting about her mask until she was  
  
half way to the entrance way.  
  
she  
  
thought as her hand reached for the door knob.  
  
Then her blood turned to ice as a knock landed on the  
  
door, announcing that the danger had arrive.  
  
Aren't I cruel? 


	2. Dark Decisions, Hidden Secrets Ch2

Dark Decisions, Hidden Secrets; Ch. 2  
  
Tori: Saria doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters.  
  
SA: And only will if some weird cosmic event happens that lands the deed in her hands.  
  
Saria: T_T You don't have to rub it in, SA. Keep this up and I won't let you kill the flamers. Wait a second, leave the flamers alone and go kill my little sisters.  
  
Tori and SA: ALRIGHT!!  
  
------------------------------------- -----------  
  
Yusuke stared at the door, horrified that her senses had warned her of this threat so late. Turning, she rushed down the hall of her mother's apartment to the large window in the back. If her senses were right, the apparition at the front door would chase her if she appeared and leave her mother alone.  
iBut what if he doesn't recognize me?i she thought. iMaybe I should get my mask and then he'll know me.i But the loud knocking that came from the door made her think the better of that idea.  
Gently pushing open her window, she climbed out onto the narrow ledge directly under it as she prepared to jump. And that was exactly what she did, after pushing the window closed again of course. On the ground, she landed lightly on her feet and quickly lighted toward the front of the building, never noticing the yellow catlike eyes that watched her with a sort of distant interest until she had jumped the three stories to the ground.  
-------------------------------------- ------------  
  
In front of the building, no one in the hummer noticed the young, pink haired girl that appeared from the back of the building. Or if they did, they merely wrote her off as unimportant.  
------------------------------------- -----------  
  
The apparition was beginning to get impatient as he knocked one last time on the door of what he was beginning to believe was an empty apartment. Pushing his anger down, he reached out and turned the doorknob gently and then a little harder when he found it was locked. With a faint crack, the lock broke and the door swung into what he could now see was an occupied apartment.  
He got a faint, familiar smell from the room that was to his immediate right, so he started for the room. Seeing the door slightly open, he peeked in. There was a slight lump on the futon of what was an otherwise empty room with the exception of several boxes that had clothes in them. Not even a single thing that would suggest that this was the room of a child, definitely poor.  
Creeping into the room, he hesitated only one second before ripping back the blanket to find just an empty bed! But it was still slightly warm, meaning Yusuke had been here not long ago. At that second, a scream of surprise filled the air.  
In shock, the intruder ran for the door, unknowingly dragging Yusuke's blanket with him. Out on the yard, he saw his brother and a young girl engaged in a fierce fight. She gained a brief advantage and in that moment, knocked his brother away. Then she turned and stared at the doorway he was in.  
For the first time in quite a while, Toguro felt his breath leave him from the sheer beauty of this girl. What she said next surprised him so much, it nearly killed him.  
"You want me Toguro? Well here I am! I'm Yusuke Urameshi!" With that she turned and ran from the complex, right past the hummer.  
"CATCH THAT GIRL!" Toguro Otouto screamed at the top of his lungs.  
  
Saria: How was that?  
  
Tori: Please read and review, or you'll hurt my feelings!  
  
SA: YOU? You didn't do any work!  
  
Saria: Yeah, you were guarding my chocolate stash!  
  
SA: And you need to stop talking to yourself!  
  
Saria: But I'm great company! 


	3. Dark Decisions, Hidden Secrets Ch3

Dark Decisions, Hidden Secrets  
Ch. 3  
  
Saria: iHolds up a contracti Could it be? Please let it be!!  
  
Tori: iGrabs said paperi Nope. You still don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, only this female Yusuke.  
  
SA: And you thought trying to grease Funimations' wheels with picketing and seven dollars would work?  
  
Saria: It was worth a try...iwalks off miserablyi  
  
Tori: Hey get back here and write the fic!  
  
--------------------  
Yusuke didn't think, barely even breathed as she focused entirely on her running.  
  
'Where to go, where to go?' her thoughts screamed at her. Kuwabara's was too obvious,  
  
Genkai's was too far, and even if it wasn't, if she showed up at this hour of the night,  
  
there would be hell to pay, not to mention a fireworks show, something she REALLY  
  
didn't need right now. But where?  
  
Kurama was her best bet, they were so different, no one would suspect they were  
  
friends. His house wasn't that far, maybe she could make it.  
  
An explosion that knocked her off her feet and off the road, tumbling into a ditch said  
  
otherwise. With a grunt, she pushed herself back onto her feet and continued running, this  
  
time pushing through the brush and into a park, all the while picking her pink hair out of  
  
her mouth and brown eyes.  
--------------------  
Toguro, still holding Yusuke's comforter from her bed, had just joined the chase. He  
  
had jumped from the third story balcony as soon as he had seen Karasu and Bui begin to  
  
chase the young woman, his older brother completely forgotten.  
  
He was slightly shocked when Karasu began to throw bombs at the attempting to  
  
escape Yusuke, but relaxed some when he saw they weren't aimed directly at her.  
  
He caught up with Karasu and Bui just as they were jumping the brush that Yusuke had  
  
plowed through a few seconds before. Both seemed to be enjoying the chase and were  
  
obviously not taking it seriously, yet. Yusuke would have to do something unexpected in  
  
order for that to happen, otherwise, they'd simply chase her until she tired.  
  
Looking down, he saw Yusuke's head was turned, as though she were watching for  
  
how they would go about getting past the bushes, but he wasn't bothered, not even when  
  
she pushed through still more tall bushes. Beside him, he heard a slight snicker from  
  
Karasu.  
  
"If the bushes didn't hide her before, why would they now?" Karasu asked out loud  
  
right as they all prepared to leap over the bushes again. This time however, as they passed  
  
over the tops of the bushes, a wide barrage of blasts came at them, from below!  
  
A shot barely grazed his arm, not even enough to bruise him, Karasu had barely  
  
avoided a shot himself, and Bui had a single scorch mark on one of his arm's plates. The  
  
attack had been completely unexpected, and it was enough to make Karasu and Bui  
  
serious.  
  
Bui immediately formed his battle axe, and Karasu formed a series of green glowing  
  
Bombs and hurled them at the bushes. Toguro saw through the flashes and flames that  
  
Yusuke had just gotten out of the way though, by the skin of her teeth. But, no sooner  
  
than she was clear of the flames, Bui attacked her, swinging his axe on the side so she  
  
was struck by the broad side rather than the blade. A loud 'CRUNCH!' filled the air, and  
  
Yusuke went flying backwards, knocked witless by Bui's blow. Her flight though, was  
  
cut short when she hit a tree and fell bonelessly to the ground. Only then did Toguro  
  
approach her.  
  
A quick glance told him she was unconscious. That was all he needed to know.  
--------------------  
The elder Toguro sat in the Hummer, now parked by the roadside where the chase had  
  
gone off road. A slight scent passed through the air, and he looked up just as his younger  
  
brother entered the Hummer's driver side.  
  
Karasu and Bui climbed into the back, Bui carrying a makeshift sack on his back that  
  
had once been Yusuke Urameshi's comforter.  
  
His brother started the car, and they drove off, disappearing into the night, leaving  
  
behind them no evidence they had even been there, except a still smoldering bush. And  
  
no clue as to where Yusuke Urameshi had been taken.  
  
So, what do you think? Please review! 


	4. Ch 4 Slaves

Dark Decisions, Hidden Secrets  
Ch. 4  
  
Saria: *is running around directionlessly* Chocolate! Need chocolate!!!  
  
SA: What happened to her?  
  
Tori: Don't worry, she's just a chocoholic who goes insane when she can't have chocolate.  
  
SA: Dare I ask what happened to it?  
  
Tori: I took a majority of it to save, but her little sisters stole the rest, of course!  
  
SA: *holds up chocolate bar* Saria! You can have this if you'll write the fic!  
----------  
  
Yusuke knew she was becoming conscious again because she was now somewhat  
  
aware, meaning she'd be up again soon. The question now was where would she wake  
  
up? She had a feeling that the park where she'd originally lost consciousness in was now  
  
far behind her.  
  
Several moments later, she felt her other senses awaken as well. Moving her fingers  
  
gingerly, she pressed the tips against whatever it was she was lying on. Cloth, probably a  
  
blanket of some sort, but under the blanket there was a definite hard surface, meaning she  
  
wasn't on a bed. She didn't know whether to take comfort in that or not.  
  
Slowly, as she gathered her wits, Yusuke gently pushed herself up as she opened her  
  
eyes to take in her surroundings. Just as she thought, she was lying on a blanket that was  
  
halfway wrapped around her, more specifically, her blanket from her bed. She was lying  
  
in what appeared to be some sort of cell made out of stone with a single, heavy looking  
  
door over what seemed to be the only entrance.  
  
'How typical' she thought as she kicked the rest of the blanket off of her, relieved to  
  
see that she was still in her in pajamas. "You're probably locked, aren't you?" she asked  
  
the door. Reaching out, she continued, "Still never hurt anyone to just try." Yusuke was  
  
given the surprise of her life when the door simply opened when she pushed, meaning  
  
that it hadn't been locked to begin with! Feeling a little foolish, she pushed the door open  
  
a crack more and peered out into what appeared to be an empty hallway. Listening  
  
carefully, she heard no sound that resembled approaching footsteps. Instead, there was  
  
simply dead silence, letting her know something was really wrong.  
  
Pushing her way out of the room through the still barely opened door, she noticed a  
  
door almost identical to the one she had just pushed past just a couple of feet down the  
  
hall from her. The difference was that this door had a small view port near the top.  
  
Creeping up to the door and standing on her tiptoes, she just barely saw into the room.  
  
Like the one she'd woken up in, it was very plain and done up in stone. Unlike hers there  
  
was a bed though shoved up against the far wall and a...being was asleep on it.  
  
Pushing away from the door, she had just made up her mind to find an exit,  
  
immediately, when a sudden, loud bell sounded. She heard the demon in the room behind  
  
her stir and her heart jumped, she couldn't get caught now!  
  
Dashing through the hall, she desperately sought for a hiding place, somewhere,  
  
ANYWHERE! But there wasn't even a dark crevice in the wall or ceiling for her to hide  
  
by, much less a statue or a closet of some sort. Turning the corner, she felt her spirits lift  
  
when she saw a small, dark crack in the wall, small being about 15 inches. It would be a  
  
tight fit, but maybe she could hide in there. The back of the crack ended up being a good  
  
4 feet back and widened to about 2 feet across, still not very comfortable, but better than  
  
she could have hoped for otherwise.  
  
A shuffling of feet and a few murmured voices passed by her spot several minutes later  
  
and died down quickly, but still Yusuke refused to extract herself from the space. She  
  
was too busy trying to figure out what had happened. First Toguro had shown up with his  
  
brother and two other guys, one of them had hit her with an axe and knocked her into a  
  
tree while the other threw bombs. Shaking her head, still so engrossed with her thoughts,  
  
Yusuke completely failed to notice first the approaching footfalls, then the hand that  
  
reached into the crevice and grabbed her long pink hair. At least until it began to drag her  
  
out of her hiding place, but by then it was too late to grab for something.  
  
She was thrown to the floor the second she was out of the protection of the crevice and  
  
looked up to not see Toguro, but the two strange guys from last night. The one that had  
  
dragged her from the crevice was obviously the Samurai-wannabe because the other one,  
  
Maskman, was carrying an armful of dull gray clothes.  
  
Throwing the clothes at her, Maskman said quickly, "Put these on."  
  
Looking down at the clothes, Yusuke crinkled her nose slightly, they stank! "But these  
  
st.."  
  
"Just put them on." Maskman said in a voice that sounded very final. "Unless you  
  
would prefer to train in your present attire."  
  
"Train?" Yusuke asked, her voice quite visibly showing her confusion.  
  
"Unless you plan to dress there, you'd better find a better place to change." That threat  
  
was quite visibly no joke. He meant business, no more stalling.  
  
"Why do I feel like I'm not only missing something, but that I'm also not going to  
  
enjoy this?" Yusuke asked herself more than anyone as she headed back up the hall  
  
toward the room where she'd woken up.  
----------  
  
Toguro watched with a grim sort of pleasure as his slaves filed up from the "dorm"  
  
area. A few of them were wearing the gray uniforms that had been sent to Yusuke to  
  
signify her as a newbie here. Others were wearing blues, mint greens, or yellows, each  
  
meaning a higher level. Yusuke would be tested today to see what level she would fall  
  
under, and Toguro was certain that she would surpass them all, with the exception of  
  
Karasu and Bui.  
  
Wearing the grim smile that had spread over his face, Toguro turned and headed down  
  
the hall where his breakfast and personal training room were located.  
----------  
  
Saria: CHOCOLATE!!!*is dancing around holding the candy bar*  
  
Tori: She looks happy.  
  
SA: Also, Saria doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho, sorry if that came late. Now, REVIEW ALL OF YOU IF YOU WISH TO KEEP YYOUR MORTAL SOULS!!! HA HA HA HA!!!!! 


	5. Ch 5 It Begins

Saria: Hey all! Sorry if this is late. My computer literally went to pieces several times and lost all memory!  
  
SA: And a bunch of good you did trying to glue it back together!(angry because her hands are stuck together) Tori, where is that dissolvent??  
  
Tori: Comi..Aaaguuuh!!(smashes bottle)  
  
Saria: --; I'm going to start the fic now, and could someone be kind enough to send SA more super glue dissolvent?  
  
----------  
Just as Yusuke had suspected, the clothes were a bit big on her and for a second she wondered if she should just go out in her pajamas.  
  
'Then again,' she thought as she tied her pink hair back with a gray strip of cloth, 'if I did try to do that, Maskman would probably have dragged me into the hall and forced me to dress there.' With one last sigh, she walked to the closed door, suddenly grateful there wasn't a viewing window, and reentered the hall.  
  
The two strange men were still there, and once she reappeared, they began to walk toward, then past the place where she had originally hidden. She studied the walls as they moved along quickly came to realize why she'd been so easy to find. There wasn't a single other place to hide at all! Obviously the crack from earlier was made on purpose.  
  
Turning her attention back on the men in front of her, she knew there weren't any nearby exits. If there were, one of, if not both, would have walked behind her to insure she didn't run. Both of them were strong, of that she was sure, quite likely a lot stronger than she was. They continued on in silence, up a flight of stairs then down another hall and stopped in front of a pair of doors.  
  
Maskman now turned and stared at her for a second. Yusuke, unabashed, stared right back at him, answering his challenge and refusing to be the one to look away first. This continued for several seconds before he finally spoke.  
  
"You're going to be tested to see what level of training you fall under. You'll fight until you simply can't win. You'll be allowed 2 minutes to recover after each fight. The higher your level, the better. After the testing, you'll be given clothes that signify your level. Gray is lowest, then comes blue, green, yellow, brown, and red. If you achieve brown or red, you'll be moved to a different training area and dorm. I suggest you try for at least yellow after the run you gave us last night, any lower, and either one of us or the brothers will retest you and that will not be pleasant. Understood?"  
  
Yusuke stared at him for a second before giving him a rather cheeky smirk. "One question, when do we eat?"  
  
Maskman looked exasperated, rolled his eyes and shoved the door open.  
"Just get inside!" he ordered.  
  
"But you haven't answe..." Yusuke yelled before she was cut off by the door slamming in her face.  
  
'No sense of humor' she thought as she turned to take in the room. All around her the demons had stopped training to stare at her as though she were some new, strange spectacle. Then again, a young human girl with pink hair being shoved into their training area probably was a new, strange spectacle. Man, it was good to be popular.  
  
One of the beings in yellow approached her and he looked a bit on the pissed side.  
  
"You the new trainee?" he asked in a very nasally voice. "Don't even look strong enough to be able to hold your own against the weakest of us. Why don't you run to the kitchens and learn to make our food? Ha ha ha ha!"  
  
Yusuke couldn't decide which bothered her more, the hideous yellow outfit, his manners, or the idiot's voice. Not giving him the chance to even draw in breath for another round of laughter or word, she sent her small fist flying into his jaw, smashing it quite thoroughly. In complete shock, the apparition fell to the stone floor and twitched there, in quite obvious pain.  
  
"You know, it's guys like you that are the reason I first put on my mask," Yusuke began. "You can't stand the thought of a girl being tough or strong, so you continuously put us down." Looking up at the rest of the room, she declared, "If anyone else would care to fight, and fight at your best, then step forward. If not, then assign me a level and get it over with!"  
  
One of the beings with purple skin and multiple eyes stepped forward and in a quiet voice began to speak.  
  
"You need to move to a different training area. The one you just defeated was our strongest."  
  
Yusuke couldn't help but gape at the demon. The weak little chauvinistic demon who was lying in front of her was their strongest fighter? But, he was so weak that it was disgusting. Turning easily on her heels, she simply walked the two steps back to the door, pushed it open, and left.  
  
In the hallway, the Samurai-wannabe and Maskman seemed to have been waiting for her. Neither seemed surprised that she had reappeared less than two minutes after being shoved into the room. In fact, Maskman seemed annoyed it had taken so long.  
  
"Judging that Tyrus is on the floor and barely moving, I assume that you won."  
  
It seemed more of a statement than a question, so Yusuke remained silent.  
  
Taking the lead once more, Maskman began to lead to the next training area. Deciding to take a gamble, Yusuke stood firmly before asking her question.  
  
"Hey, Maskman! What's YOUR level?"  
  
Maskman turned back and glared at her before spitting out, "I'm Karasu, if you must address me, you will call me Karasu. The man in the armor is Bui, you will address him as such. As to our levels, we are above the named levels and much stronger than you. That is all you need to know." With that he stalked down the hall.  
  
"Geez, what a sour old bat!" Yusuke murmured.  
  
"Yes," came a deep voice behind her, "but don't let him hear you call him that. He can be very unpleasant."  
  
Yusuke stared at Bui, he'd just spoken for the first time and she was a little surprised. She had been expecting something like unintelligible grunts, not words.  
  
"Better catch up before he suspects you're dawdling."  
  
Yusuke nodded silently before heading off in the direction Karasu had gone, Bui right behind her.  
---------- Saria: So, what do you think? Like it? Hate it? Any suggestions?  
  
SA: Don't forget the super glue dissolvent! 


	6. Ch 6 Oops, I never was good at first imp...

Saria: (In a sarcastic tone) WOW! Thanks for all the reviews...  
  
SA: (Is still giving Tori the EVIL eye) At least I got the super glue dissolvent, without help from certain others...  
  
Tori: Gomen (rubs head) Are you going to start the fic now?  
  
Saria: I don't know, maybe I will, else why would I be at my computer writing this? Hmm?  
  
Tori: Saria19 doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho, but if she did Kuwabaka would probably be dead by Hiei's hand, Kurama would be with Karasu, and a whole bunch of other changes would be present...Oh, and the Dark Tournament will happen, just in a different way. It'll end differently as well.  
----------  
Yusuke didn't think she'd ever been so bored. The next room that Karasu (Maskman as she still thought of him) had thrown her in was full of apparitions in the ugliest dirt brown clothes she had ever seen! They had stared at her for a full minute before one had stepped forward and challenged her to a fight. She defeated him almost 6 seconds later with a single left hook that caught him in the gut. No other challengers stepped forward and she was told to leave. At least they had actually been polite during the exchanges that had happened, no one insulting her for being a girl.  
  
Karasu and Bui had both been standing outside the door once again. Once again Karasu seemed peeved that she had taken "so long". Bui had warned her to fight as fast as possible, and to try to take it easy. He even suggested letting herself get defeated in the next room, the red room.  
  
"Why should I let someone defeat me if I'm stronger" she had asked when he suggested this.  
  
"Because, Toguro might decide you're not worth the effort of training if you do. Plus, if you do win the next fights, you'll be above the regular stages. Toguro will personally take over testing your strength. Believe me when I say he's rough. Then there'll be the training afterwards. There won't be anyone left for you to practice with except Karasu and myself, and we don't give anyone any breaks," had been Bui's rather long reply.  
  
'I hope these guys are going to be a good challenge,' she thought as Maskman stopped once again in front of yet another door. 'Bui is probably right, and I should probably try to attempt a believable loss. But I'll only do that if one of these guys can at least land three blows, but only one has to hurt.'  
  
The door opened and Yusuke lightly stepped through and once again it was shut. Looking around the room, she saw only three beings, all dressed in matching red robes. They were the exact same fighters she had defeated in Tarukane's strong hold, the Demon Triad.  
  
"You have got to be kidding me!" she suddenly screamed, completely unaware of what she was doing.  
  
The Triad on the other side of the training area all stiffened instantly then turned as one to locate the source of the outburst. Seeing her, they all jumped forward instantly, and completely without an introduction, attacked her.  
  
Or, at least they tried. Before any of them were even half way across the room, Yusuke fired her shot gun attack and decimated them. This entire thing took about thirty seconds.  
  
Back in the hallway, Karasu seemed a bit surprised to see her walk back out and see the entire Triad lying on the floor. It had only taken a fraction of all the times before. "Toguro next," had been all he said before turning and once again taking the lead and striding down the hall.  
  
"Aye aye, Captain Jackass," Yusuke had murmured under her breath.  
  
Bui, who once again walked right behind her, heard however, and actually began to snicker a bit. It was the first time anyone had ever dared to speak poorly of Karasu before him, especially when most thought he and Karasu were buddies.  
  
Other than Yusuke's sarcastic remark, the walk to Toguro's personal part of the fortress was long, boring, and completely uneventful, if you didn't count the brief screaming match that Yusuke and Karasu had when her stomach began to growl from hunger. Luckily, Bui broke up the two before they could start to fight. He did that mainly because he didn't want to be the one to explain any "remodeling" that happened to the fortress, or why Yusuke was injured, or Karasu had a new scar or crack in his mask to Toguro. That would have been very bad for his health.  
  
Luckily, after the brief outburst, Karasu made a fast detour through a kitchen and got Yusuke a roll. This wasn't because of sympathy, he just hated the sound that Yusuke's stomach was making.  
  
Finally, they reached Toguro's private area. The doors were much different from the ones that led to the other training rooms. The other doors were roughly hewn pieces of wood on hinges. These doors were ornate, tall things that were richly decorated and had brass handles on them.  
  
Karasu's manners instantly became more respectful when he stopped before these doors. Unlike the other rooms where he simply shoved open the doors and tossed her in, he now knocked gently on the doors and waited for the rooms occupant to answer.  
  
From behind the doors, a deep voice answered. "Who is it?"  
  
"Karasu and Bui, we've brought the girl to finish her testing," was Karasu's reply.  
  
"Enter," the deep voice of Toguro answered.  
  
Not wasting any time, Karasu quickly pushed the door open and walked in. Yusuke didn't move however until Bui gave her a slight push that sent the girl stumbling into the room and running face first into Karasu's back. In disgust, they shoved off of each other, Karasu going forward, tripping and falling face down on the floor, Yusuke going back first into Bui, and Bui banging out the door landing face up on the hallway floor with a now sitting Yusuke on his chest.  
  
Inside the room, a squawking laugh could be heard coming from an out-of- sight part of the room. "Quite a selection you've made, brother. She beat Karasu AND Bui with a klutz attack!" With that, more laughter erupted from inside the room.  
  
"Hey!" Yusuke shouted as she scrambled off of Bui, "I didn't have a klutz attack, I was pus...AAUUURGGGGGG!!! Get it off! Get it off!!!" The last part was screamed when Yusuke felt something that felt like a cross between a hair ball and a snake wrap around her foot.  
  
In the immediate panic she started jumping up and down shrieking, unknowingly trampling Karasu's back, until she realized it was his hair around her foot. Then when she landed right after this realization, her foot slipped on the hem of Karasu's jacket and she went down, elbow first, onto Karasu. When she was able to pull herself up several minutes later, the first thing she noticed was that Karasu wasn't moving. The second thing she noticed was the deafening laughter coming from the second speaker.  
  
"Well, I never was good at first impressions," Yusuke said lamely to the air.  
---------- Tori: SOOOOO...Like it? Hate it? WHO CARES!!!! Just review to say what you think. PLEASE? (is making puppy dog eyes)  
  
Saria: Just three reviews and I'll update within the week! If not, then don't count on it. I won't drop the story all together, I just might not update for a good while, and believe me, this one is going to have a killer ending! 


	7. Ch 7 The Test Fight

Saria: (is huggling a Karasu and Kurama plushie) If I owned Yu Yu Hakusho, Karasu and Kurama would always be together!!  
  
SA: Unfortunately you don't, and that isn't what this fic is about.  
  
Saria: Maybe I'll work it in though!  
  
SA and Tori: --; This girl and her obsessions...  
  
Saria: Thanks for all the reviews, I finally got some more ideas for events in the fic! Now, on with the fic and don't hog the brownies!  
----------  
Yusuke could feel Karasu's eyes glaring at her, he was definitely not the type to laugh about the events that had just happened, make a joke, or much less forget. She was definitely going to go out of her way to avoid him.  
  
The bigger of the Toguro brothers hadn't laughed about her supposed "klutz attack" that had knocked Karasu down (because he had actually tripped), or Bui going flat on his back when Karasu had shoved her into him (she was equally at fault for that one). The smaller, older Toguro though, had laughed so hard that the whole castle had probably heard him.  
  
Yusuke tried not to dwell on this as she followed the younger Toguro to the training area. His brother was perched upon his shoulder while Bui and Karasu brought up the rear of this miniature parade. All in all, her chances of escape were slim to none.  
  
Toguro then pushed open a door that was as extravagant as the one that opened to his area. The room behind the door was completely dark, but lit up suddenly as Toguro stepped into the room. The floors inside were made from wood and the walls were stone. Torches that lit the room were spaced just about five feet from each other along the walls, but the flames that lit them weren't orange as much as the were blue-white.  
  
Toguro strode confidently to the center of the room and stood there. His brother had jumped off his shoulder at some point and was now leaning against the wall near the door.  
  
Yusuke walked quietly into the room but stopped only a few feet in. Behind her, the doors slammed shut with a loud 'BOOM', closing her into the room where she would finish Toguro's placement test. The loud noise caught her by surprise though, and she jumped a little, drawing yet another annoying laugh from the elder Toguro that really ground on her nerves.  
  
"Now," Toguro began as he removed his long, green jacket, "The true test of your abilities begins. You will fight me until you can't anymore. Every couple of minutes I will get a little stronger. There won't be any breaks and if you refuse to fight at the best of your abilities, then you will be punished. This test will end when I feel as though you are fighting at your present maximum in strength, yet I've just reached the level in my power where there is no chance that you will defeat me without help from another being. Do you understand?"  
  
Yusuke stared straight at Toguro for a few more seconds before slowly nodding her head. She chose not to speak because her mouth was suddenly feeling as dry as cotton. She was going to get her butt handed to her and she just knew it!  
  
Turning her attention back toward Toguro, she watched, with a bit of shock, as Toguro suddenly seemed to grow in size before her very eyes. He grunted slightly as the growing stopped, thankfully his size hadn't increased too much though.  
  
"I'll start out 8%, the level at which I originally beat the Karasu and Bui." He shouted right before he charged straight at Yusuke.  
  
In a slight panic at seeing the mammoth man rush at her, Yusuke dodged the first attack by jumping straight up and then attempting to clamp onto one of the ceiling rafters. She did dodge the attack, but she ended up banging her head on the ceiling because there weren't any rafters to grab for. Hitting the floor, she quickly shook off the pain from the bump and pulled a back flip, just barely getting herself out of the way of Toguro's next move, a hard right punch. Landing easily about ten feet away from Toguro, Yusuke quickly prepared her own attack.  
  
"Shot gun!" she screamed as she sent the barrage of mini-bullets toward Toguro.  
  
The attack landed squarely, quickly pummeling Toguro's chest and sending him into the wall behind him.  
  
"Haa!" Yusuke crowed at seeing how easily Toguro had been thrown away from her.  
  
"Don't get so cocky, Yusuke. That was above my expectations I admit, but your powers are still far from impressive." Toguro stared at her as he extracted himself from the wall. "It seems I underestimated your power, but I'm not through yet. I'll just up the level to 12% now." Toguro body size increased a little again and once again he took a fighting stance.  
  
Yusuke was the one to attack first this time. She quickly charged up her favorite attack as she rushed toward Toguro at break neck speed.  
  
"SPIRIT GUN!" she screamed, firing her attack at point blank range.  
  
The attack caused Toguro to slide back several feet and made a slight burn on his face, but barely much more. Then the muscles shifted again, barely much more, but noticeable if you watched carefully. Yusuke wasn't watching though, she was wondering what she was going to do!  
  
Now, without any warning, Toguro attacked.  
  
Yusuke wasn't expecting the sudden attack and received a hard punch to the stomach followed by a kick that caught her in the side and threw her into the wall on the other side of the room.  
  
Barely able to stay conscious, Yusuke stared at Toguro and grabbed hold of the nearest torch and pulled herself back upright. Anger quickly pulled back into full consciousness and prepared her to fight again. Quickly pushing off the wall, she once again charged at Toguro, this time while he charged at her.  
  
ten minutes later  
  
Yusuke was barely conscious now and completely out of energy. Her anger no longer was able to keep her going, and her willpower was the only thing making her able to stand anymore.  
  
Toguro on the other hand seemed tireless, he still moved with extreme speed and circled her much like a wolf.  
  
Yusuke could just barely follow him with her eyes and struggled to keep her hands up so she could defend herself.  
  
The final attack came suddenly, and though Yusuke saw it coming, she was powerless to stop it. Toguro moved behind the girl then struck her across the back of her neck using a knife hand. Yusuke was unconscious before her body even hit the floor.  
  
As soon as she was officially 'out', Toguro powered down, then grabbed the girl's foot and dragged her back toward the door where Karasu, Bui, and his brother waited.  
  
"Well?" asked his brother, "What is the final call?"  
  
"She was able to stand up to 16%, but I ended at 18 though," he answered as he released Yusuke's foot. Turning to Bui he continued, "Lock her in a maximum security cell, she is the strongest any newbie has been, and I don't want to run any risks of losing her. She could be very valuable in a few months."  
  
Nodding stiffly, Bui obediently grabbed up the girl and began to carry her toward the tower where the maximum security cells/dorms, were. These cells were right above Toguro's living area, making escape very difficult if not impossible. She would be pretty much alone up there, since it was a tower. But he and Karasu also 'lived' there and Bui felt as though by taking her up there, he was ending the quiet due to the fights that would likely erupt between Yusuke and Karasu. He was going to be wishing for ear plugs pretty soon, of that he had no doubt.  
---------- Tori: Please review!! Saria, what's wrong?  
  
Saria: TT You ate all the brownies...WAAAAAAHH!!!!  
  
SA: (grabs a CD player with earphones) Cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort! Suffocat...  
  
Saria: (just shoved a sock into SA's mouth) Let me moan and groan in peace!! 


	8. Ch 8 AnoEto

Saria: OH NO!!!! I'm moving on the 21!  
  
SA: Get over it!  
  
Tori: She's upset that she won't be writing for a while, SA. She's been busy packing.  
  
SA: So what?!?? She just needs to start the fic!  
  
Saria: Sometimes SA, I really HATE YOU!!!!!  
  
----------  
'Great' Karasu thought as he went down to the low level dorms to retrieve Yusuke's blanket. 'Now we have a human child here and she's going to be staying in the same area as ME! The fact that she's attractive doesn't help either, probably will demand everything be done for her and whine when it's time to train.'  
  
Stopping in front of the door that opened to the cell Yusuke had stayed in right after capture, Karasu, still very much in a dark mood, shoved the door open and strode in. Then, right as he grabbed the girl's blanket, a small square of paper fell out. Looking down at the paper, all gloom quickly left his mind.  
  
"And what do we have here?" Karasu asked as he picked up the square of paper.  
----------  
Yusuke groaned as she once again regained consciousness. That was the second time in under 18 hours that she had been hit so hard that she had been knocked unconscious, and she was quite honestly getting sick of it!  
  
Pain surfaced the next second and she began to wish someone would knock her out again. Every muscle in her body felt as though someone had taken a hot iron and rubbed them with it before ripping them apart strand by strand. Her neck hurt a little as well, and her head throbbed horribly.  
  
Pushing open her eyes which felt as though they were laden with 100 pound bags of sand each, Yusuke turned her head to try to see where she was. Key word, try! Wherever she was now, it was either really late or just really dark. She was on a bed this time, not a very comfortable one, but it was still a bed. A single blanket was carelessly thrown over her.  
  
Struggling to sit up, Yusuke almost screamed as her trashed muscles bent with the movement and were pulled out of place.  
  
"Damn!" Yusuke said out loud. "Stupid muscles, and what's with the lights here?"  
  
Instantly, a couple of candles that were in the room lit themselves and cast the room into feeble light. Yusuke quickly glanced around the room. Like the original room she had been placed in, it was very plain, but this time there was a bed, the walls and floor were made of wood, and there was a sink and toilet in one corner.  
  
Yusuke pushed herself out of the bed, and nearly crumpled to the floor from pain and a strange lack in strength in her legs. Recovering quickly, Yusuke pushed herself towards the door on the wall opposite of the sink and toilet area and barely managed to push it open with her weakened arms. Looking out, once again she groaned. The hallway outside her door was actually a stair column.  
  
Pushing herself out of the door, she just barely managed to keep herself from falling again. The trip down the stairs was painful, each step caused her legs to burn and ache while her head began to feel as though it were full of air.  
  
The descent down the stairs took Yusuke a very long 10 minutes despite the fact that the room that she's woke up in wasn't that high up. When she finally emerged from the staircase, she found herself back in the Toguro brothers' rooms. Everything was dark now except for one lit torch, the door on the left probably led back to the hall, so she should go that way if she wanted to find an exit.  
  
Pushing off the wall again, Yusuke tried with all her might to get to the door, but was only half-way there before she sank to her knees as hunger and exhaustion finally got the best of her.  
  
"So, you're up sooner than expected."  
  
Yusuke quickly turned her head and found the older of the brothers standing behind her, a very ugly smirk on his face.  
  
"We were expecting," he continued, "that you would be down for at least 4 days, not just 8 hours. Human bodies are so frail, your strength is surprising. Maybe we'll be able to begin training you as early as tomorrow! Heh heh heh!"  
  
The laughter grated on Yusuke's nerves to no end. In what was perhaps the only way for her to answer anymore, she gave the annoying little man a very dirty look. He saw the look and his laughter died almost instantly.  
  
"I hate that look, it seems to scream that you think very little of me. But, no matter how much I hate that look, I hate that hair even more!" He shrieked as he grabbed Yusuke's long pink hair right below where the tie was.  
  
"Argh!" Yusuke protested as the brother jerked her backward, her neck snapping back painfully.  
  
"This hair," the sadistic beast continued, "reminds me of her, the woman who almost stole my brother from me. And I won't stand for it!" With that he stretched out his hand and to Yusuke's horror, it shifted it a blade. The next instant, the blade descended, slicing away her hair to the top of her neck and cutting a rather large, jagged wound into the top of her neck.  
  
"HA ha ha ha ha!" The crazed laughter of the demented being began again as he tossed her hair onto the floor next to her.  
  
Yusuke stared at her hair in complete shock for a second, then began to fight back the hot, angry tears that had begun to creep into her eyes. Lying right next to her in an abused, neglected heap, lay the relic of her womanhood that she had been so proud of. Despite no one ever seeing it because of her mask, she had always pampered that hair, feeling so proud of it, never letting another touch, pull, much less cut it. Now the waist- length slightly wavy locks lay on the ground, still tied together by the grey strip of cloth.  
  
Reaching out quickly, Yusuke tried to retrieve her hair but missed as the brother grabbed it up himself.  
  
"I think that I'll keep this." He declared as he turned and strode out of the room.  
  
Yusuke watched as he left, then the shock of what had happened hit her again. Tears welled up again, and feeling weaker than ever, she allowed herself to crumple to the floor.  
  
Some time later, the door opened again and the younger Toguro strode in at a high pace. Karasu and Bui limped in his wake, both obviously hurt. Toguro stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing Yusuke crumpled on the floor.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Brother, that girl managed to get out of her cell and all the way down here."  
  
Toguro glanced down at her and noticed the cut and her missing hair. "What did you do to her?"  
  
"Heh heh heh. I really hated that hair so..." he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out her hair, still tied together. "I decided to take away the annoyance."  
  
All of the new arrivals stared at the hair with looks of horror. Yusuke, on the other hand, only felt anger seeing her beautiful hair in that disgusting creature's claws. As her anger rose, she became aware that some of her spirit energy had returned. Reaching out with her index finger extended, she slowly gathered the energy. She might not be able to kill the guy, but she could at least give him a little memento.  
  
"Brother..." the younger Toguro growled angrily.  
  
"Spirit gun!"  
  
The blast caught the older Toguro in the shoulder and completely severed the arm holding her hair.  
  
"Ha ha! I was hoping that you'd do that!" he shouted triumphantly. "Brother, she has attacked me, a punishment needs to be given." With that, he reached down, grabbed the severed arm and shoved it back to where it needed to be. Tentacles instantly appeared and reconnected his arm. "I'll be the one to decide the punishment."  
  
Yusuke glared at the demented little being, but said nothing. She wasn't going to give him the pleasure of a complaint.  
  
"I think that being locked in her cell for the next two days without food should be a suitable punishment. It'll give her plenty of time to think and realize that fighting back won't help her. Ha ha ha!"  
  
Yusuke could only stare at the horrible man, he had to be joking! She was starving already and could barely move, two days from now she wouldn't be able to move at all!  
  
Her musing was cut short by Karasu suddenly grabbing her by the shoulder and hauling her to her feet then pushing her toward the stairs.  
  
Once back in the cell, she stumbled back to the bed and pulled her blanket up over her. She was so tired...and hungry...maybe she just needed to get some sleep...  
---------- Saria: Alright! Another chapter done!  
  
Tori: Yeah, to bad it'll be rushed from now on what with you moving and all.  
  
Saria: TT WAAHHHH!  
  
SA: Here she goes again, please review. 


	9. Ch 9 Who

Saria: Yoo hoo! Is anyone here anymore? You haven't been reviewing!  
  
SA: smacks Saria over the head with a 50 pound mallet I thought I'd eventually have a use for this.  
  
Tori: was smacked first with the mallet  
  
Saria:   
  
SA: sweatdrops Ok, since I knocked out the authoress and the brat, here goes, Saria doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho, never will, even though her attempts to gain ownership are amusing. However, she does own this version of female Yusuke, several of the original demons, and all the chocolate that is eaten at anytime during this fic. grabs a bucket of icy water and dumps it on Saria WAKE UP!!!!!!!  
----------  
Yusuke woke the next morning not wanting to go to school. Surprisingly, her mother didn't come in and grab her out of bed and out the door. Eventually, curiosity got to her and she decided to get up and have breakfast.  
  
'Man, I hope she didn't decide to try to cook again,' she thought as she sat up in bed and looked around the strange room. Immediately the events of yesterday and the night before that came back to her. And the punishment that she'd received. 'Looks like I won't be having to worry about mom cooking for a good while though. Man, why did I have to get up?'  
  
Lying back down on the bed, she once again closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, but for once she couldn't just drift off. The silence that surrounded her was too silent, and it seemed to almost have a mind all its own, oddly enough. It slithered through the room and wrapped everything in its suffocating clutches.  
  
'I'm being paranoid!' Yusuke thought desperately. Yet, as the day dragged on, she began to wonder if she truly was.  
  
By noon, the stabbing pain of hunger convinced her she wasn't going to go back to sleep, and the room had shot up in temperature so much that she felt as though she were in an oven. Several times she had tried to use the water to cool herself off or to take away the hunger pains that left her dizzy by filling her stomach with water. It hadn't worked though, all it did was leave a bad taste in her mouth and cause her stomach to cramp painfully.  
  
Sometime during the afternoon, while Yusuke was still in a miserable daze of heat, a huge explosion rocked the fortress with a very loud KABOOM! Just as surprising was when the room suddenly cooled to the point where Yusuke scrambled for her blanket. Below her, deep voices and a shrill one were bellowing something about giving more of a warning. At one point, when her head cleared momentarily, she believed she heard the name Karasu.  
  
It took a second for her still slowly functioning brain to grasp, but when it did, she couldn't help but laugh. 'Maskman is causing trouble?' she thought. 'Didn't know he had it in him.'  
  
The few seconds that this occurred in got her mind off of her hunger for a few minutes and her body acted upon its own, quickly sending her into a deep sleep.  
----------  
'Where am I?' Yusuke thought when she opened her eyes yet again. Everything felt strange and fuzzy and soft and warm. Around her was a vortex that swirled around her in a calming shade of blue.  
  
Reaching out, she tried to touch the edge of the vortex that seemed so close, but her hand just couldn't reach. Turning her head, she found that as far as she could see, she was completely alone...or was she? All around her she could sense some sort of presence that didn't seem to have a physical form.  
  
A true shocker hit her, and she felt her heart skip several beats when a mind touched her own. It wasn't very much like hers, yet at the same time it was. It also felt familiar in another way.  
  
'There you are,' came a sudden voice. It sounded aged and wise, but not old, and through it, she could sense two others watching her. The being's mind reached out again and touched her mind again. 'I finally found you.'  
  
'Who are you?' she asked with her own mind. She could almost sense the beings disappointment at her question. 'Are you here to help me?' she asked hopefully.  
  
'Yes,' was the answer, 'I'm here to help you. And as to who I am, you'll remember soon enough.' The voice was soothing, almost fatherly now, but Yusuke remained suspicious, especially when the mind seemed to almost solidify as it tried to wrap itself around her and pull her towards a dark end of the vortex.  
  
'NO!' she screamed mentally as she pulled herself away. The being though, wasn't about to give up as it tried to get a firmer grip, this time the other two attempting to help also. Pulling back just in time, she pushed at the edges of the vortex, trying to get out. Instantly, the vortex shattered, plunging her back into darkness...  
--------  
"Get up already!" a voice shouted at Yusuke.  
  
Groggily, she opened her eyes and stared straight up at Karasu's angry face. The dream she'd just had flew to the back of her mind as she promptly shoved her hands over her ears to block out Karasu's next yell. She still heard it anyway.  
  
"You are one lazy brat! I was sent up here to tell you to get up, that two days have passed, and you're still asleep! Now get up or you'll miss breakfast."  
  
The word 'breakfast' clicked very fast for Yusuke, and she got up as fast as she could, though her head was still clouded and her body ached from hunger so badly that she keeled over. An exasperated Karasu pulled her back up to her feet by the collar of her now very ragged shirt.  
  
Yusuke's mind remained clouded even as she followed Karasu down the stairs, across the room where her hair had been cut off, and through a door she hadn't noticed before. On the other side was a small kitchen/eating area. Bui, minus his helmet, stood at one corner of kitchen, picking up a plate from a small tray of food. Also on the tray sat two more plates with food loaded o them. Karasu promptly grabbed one before going to sit at a small, scrubbed wooden table that Bui now sat at.  
  
Yusuke quietly picked up the last plate before moving over to the table herself. There were only three chairs to begin with, so she took the last one, sitting on the other side of Bui, opposite Karasu. The plate held several different kinds of food, including what looked like porridge, some stuff that looked like eggs except they were green, and toast.  
  
'Well,' she thought gloomily, 'it might not be Cinnamon Toast Crunch, pancakes, or anything I recognize, but at least it looks edible.' With that, she slowly began to eat.  
----------  
The three exchanged looks, still shocked that the girl had escaped them.  
  
"She is stronger than we originally thought," one began. "Getting her to come to us will be difficult since we can't simply go kidnap her as that Toguro did."  
  
"Yes," another agreed. "We'll have to wait until her defenses are really weak again before we try to trap her again. And next time, we mustn't underestimate her."  
  
The last one though, simply stared straight ahead, unmoving. His companions looked at him, watching for his reaction. When he finally spoke, he whispered in his aged yet not old voice, "She has grown strong, but she can still become stronger. We may have lost her today, but not forever. The fact she could resist us is amazing though, so for now, I am pleased."  
---------- Saria: So, like it? Hate it? Who cares!?! Review one and all!  
  
SA: snickers coldly I get to hit you if you don't! brandishes 50 pound mallet and once again smacks Tori in the head  
  
Tori: This isn't my day... 


	10. Ch 10 Mirror

Saria: Oheyo! Hey, been a long time, hasn't it?  
  
SA: Yes, and that move wasn't my favorite thing. It took me forever to get out of that box!  
  
Tori: Mmmmph! Mmett me ouu! still stuck in the box  
  
Saria and SA: sweatdrop Ok, lets return to my fic. Oh, and before I forget, if anyone reads Nightmare, Erotic, Death and Sorrow, and The Grass is Always Greener, please write to the authors or authoresses and tell them to update already! And if you don't, do it anyway so others can enjoy their work! Now, on with my idiotic fic!  
----------  
The breakfast was not filling. Despite having cleaned her plate, Yusuke was still hungry. The food itself hadn't been all that great either, but it was better than her mother's.  
  
Karasu and Bui, who she still thought of as Maskman and Samurai-wannabe, were now leading her down a new hall toward the 'training room'. She wasn't sure she like the sound of that name. She was quite sure she wasn't going to find a bathtub or shower as well as some better clothes. Her present clothing was coming apart rapidly due to the "testing" that she had gone through with Toguro. Despite her energy having returned to her, Yusuke knew she couldn't take another test like that from Toguro now, in her weakened state, she might not survive. Well, her clothes wouldn't survive for sure, that was guaranteed.  
  
Yusuke was so deep in thought, she didn't see Karasu or Bui turn a corner while she kept going straight. She didn't see as she continued down the hall, entering a section that wasn't used very much. She didn't notice or see all of this until she bumped into a mirror at the end of the hall.  
  
The mirror shocked her instantly, but she got over that very fast when she finally realized that she didn't have a clue as to where she was. As she turned, intent on going back the way she'd come, the mirror once again caught her eye.  
  
"Seems like a long time since I saw one of those," she thought out loud. "Wonder why you're here." She continued as she reached out and wiped away the distinct layer of dust that covered the surface of the mirror.  
  
The mirrors surface was like a pool of pure black. The border was done in a very intricate pattern of silver laced with gold. The mirror in its whole was ominous, dark, and beautiful.  
  
Narrowing her eyes slightly at the strangeness of the mirror, she gently reached out and pressed her hand against the mirror's surface. The face wasn't cold like most surfaces, instead it felt almost like warm water because it seemed to almost flow over her hand, sending a familiar shiver up her back. As she continued to stare, her reflection oddly enough, began to appear. The girl that looked back at her still had pink, though like her it had been cut at the top of her neck in a very ragged style. Her clothes were a little big and falling apart, and her eyes and face were slightly sunken from hunger or bruised.  
  
Yusuke stared at herself for a few more seconds before removing her hand from the surface of the mirror and watched as her reflection did the same, when suddenly she stopped. The reflection looked past Yusuke into the hall before winking and putting a finger to her own lips as though saying "shhhh!". Yusuke could only watch with shock at first, and then horror as the being slowly turned spun around and instantly her clothes dissolved into a soft looking martial arts gi and her pink hair turned white and grew so long that it touched her knees. The real horror came when she saw her face and arms were now covered in purplish-grey marks and that her eyes were light purple with red swirls in them.  
  
Yusuke stared awestruck at the once human looking being in front of her before turning and running as though all hell had broken lose. She turned down a corridor then another, not seeing were she was going as long as it was away from that horrifying mirror.  
  
'Is that what Toguro wants?' she thought as she continued to blindly run. 'Was the mirror trying to warn me of something?'  
  
She didn't think much else because she spotted Bui and Karasu about midway down the corridor and slowed her pace some so that she didn't go alerting them that she'd been gone in the first place. Soon enough she was back behind them, trying to act as though nothing had happened though she had a feeling she wasn't fooling them in the least.  
  
'Youkai hearing, makes it impossible to sneak up on them..." she thought angrily.  
  
They stopped in front of another door, one that looked quite familiar, a few seconds later. Deftly pushing through the door, Yusuke found that they were back in the red level training room, the one that had housed the Demon Triad. Said Triad was now sitting near the back wall covered in bandages. The other levels were also their, having organized themselves into groups according to the level and color of their 'uniforms'.  
  
Bui immediately took hold of Yusuke's tunic and dragged her to the far side of the room where he and Karasu leaned against the back wall. Immediately Yusuke understood the order. The weaker ones were in front and the stronger in back, and with her grey clothing, it was no wonder she was getting strange looks.  
  
The door immediately banged open again, only this time, the Toguro Brothers entered; the elder of course was once again riding on his brother's shoulder. Any noise or conversation that had previously been going on died immediately and anyone who had been sitting jumped to their feet.  
  
Yusuke felt Toguro's eyes on her, insuring that she was there before his eyes swept over the room, taking in all the apparitions that were also in the room.  
  
"The Dark Tournament is approaching fast." He began. Yusuke, who had been sulking slightly, felt her ears perk up at the word 'tournament'. Around her, she heard some of the demons murmur excitedly. Toguro however, continued as though nothing odd was happening.  
  
"We are going to maintain our status as tournament champions as we have for 50 years now, and since there are two slots open on our team, they will go to the two most powerful fighters. My brother and I are going to be on this team, as will Karasu and Bui. The last two slots are for the fifth member of our team and the alternate. If you make alternate, don't expect to fight. There will be try-outs for these posts of course; they will begin in two weeks. Dismissed."  
  
Yusuke felt her stomach twist and go cold. So, that's what Toguro wanted. He wanted her to train and become stronger so he could force her to fight in this tournament, all so he could keep his title! Anger immediately washed over her and began to show on her face. There were plenty of boot- licking demons filing out of this room for him to choose from, yet he chose to kidnap her!  
  
The strange mirror now forgotten completely, she watched as the rest of the demons filed out and moved to follow them when Toguro called out, "Yusuke, remain here!" It was too much of an order to ignore, that might be dangerous for her health.  
  
Unsurprisingly, Karasu and Bui also remained, unmoved, as though they'd been expecting this.  
  
Toguro moved toward them, then spoke quietly in a voice that carried a heavy threat. "You three will train the hardest, and you two," he nodded at Karasu and Bui, "will insure that she improves but doesn't over exert herself. I will have the best team, and I don't have any intention in needing an alternate. Be warned though," he glared at Yusuke, "if I feel you're not improving at a high enough rate, I will personally step in, and you won't like that."  
  
As soon as he moved away, his brother still sitting on his shoulder only now he was snickering coldly, Yusuke groaned inwardly and felt herself shiver in horror. The Toguro's left immediately afterward and slammed the door after themselves.  
  
"Alright, lets begin this." Karasu said, sounding slightly bored.  
  
Yusuke turned just as Bui once again formed his axe from thin air.  
  
"Wait! Isn't this the Triad's practice room?" she yelled, instantly feeling panicked.  
  
"Only when we're not using it." Was Karasu's bored reply as he shifted to an on guard stance. "Otherwise, this is their secondary practice room because it is bigger than their normal one." He then formed a series of the small green, glowing balls in the air.  
  
Bui suddenly charged at Yusuke, brandishing his newly formed axe.  
  
Yusuke, who barely managed to dodge the axe and then Karasu's bombs, began to wonder if she had improved enough just from the little chase/fight. At least until Bui axe once again smashed into her into a wall. She felt the anger inside her rise again and add to her normal power as she pulled herself off the wall and attacked the two, taking care to make sure she stamped hard on Karasu's foot first chance she got.  
----------  
"How much stronger do you think that pounding and then the torture made her brother?" the elder Toguro asked as he watched the three inside the room come together in an absolute mess of a rough and tumble street fight, Yusuke actually able to hold up for a while.  
  
The younger watched for a second as Yusuke continued to hold her own for a few seconds longer before she was knocked away. She recovered quickly though and returned to the fight enthusiastically. "Probably about 19% as to the original 16%, not to bad after three days, but altogether still not too impressive."  
---------- Saria: Now, please review and talk to the authors as well!  
  
SA: Is sitting on a jumping box Whoopee!  
  
Tori: Voice is very muffled Help! Let me out! 


	11. Ch 11 He's my boyfriend!

Saria: You know what they say, another day, another chapter. Suddenly perks up The good news is a new chapter for those who like my fic, and also, I'm expecting...  
  
Tori: Jumps up, interrupting Saria A baby?!?!?  
  
SA: WHAT!!!!!!  
  
Saria: Calm down, just another muse. He's forming right now in the back of my mind! He should join us by the time the next chapter goes up.  
  
Tori: GOODY!!! Finally someone to play dress-up with!  
  
Saria and SA: sweatdrop Ok, lets return to my fic. Oh, and before I forget, if anyone reads Nightmare, Erotic, Death and Sorrow, and The Grass is Always Greener, please write to the authors or authoresses and tell them to update already! And if you don't read them, do it anyway so others can enjoy their work! Now, on with my idiotic fic!  
----------  
As Yusuke followed Karasu and Bui back to the Toguro's quarters, she now understood how Bui and Karasu had gotten so strong. A slam-fest like that everyday would either cause a person to get really strong, or simply kill them from the strain.  
  
Her clothes had barely survived the fights. In fact, the was hanging on her right then by only a couple of threads that were left in the left shoulder and looked like a Tarzan garment. The pants were ripped and blood- stained like her shirt, but they didn't exist past her knees, and above that they just barely stayed on.  
  
Her back ached, her neck ached, her arms were ready to fall off again, and her feet could barely hold her weight, but Yusuke felt exhilarated inside. The reason was that Karasu was just barely limping himself, due entirely to the five successful stamps Yusuke had made on his foot.  
  
'Now if only I could do it again in high-heels' she thought with a snicker. 'That would kill him, but me as well, I can't even walk in those things, much less run from an angry Maskman!' The slight grin on her face died quickly though when they turned the last corner. There was Toguro waiting for them by the doors that led into his sanctum.  
  
Karasu and Bui noticed him as well and stopped before him, not daring to move any farther.  
  
Toguro glanced at each of them momentarily before talking. As usual, his voice sounded bored. "You'll each be allowed to bathe tonight. You have 15 minutes each, so I suggest that you don't take your time. And," he glanced slightly at Yusuke before continuing. "New clothes have been picked out for you. If they don't fit, suck it up." With that he turned and walked right back into his sanctum.  
  
With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Yusuke asked Bui and Karasu the only question she had. "I don't have to bathe in front of you two, do I?"  
----------  
The bathing area that she was led to wasn't too bad, not the cleanest or best lit place she'd ever been, but at least she was alone.  
  
Remembering Toguro's warning of only 15 minutes, Yusuke quickly stripped off her clothing and got into the water. It was icy cold! She didn't even give herself time to adjust though as she dove underneath the icy surface and coming back up a minute later a little short of breath due to the water. Grabbing the small bar of soap that had been provided, she began to thoroughly scrub herself while studying the tiny room.  
  
The room was carved from stone like most of the fortress seemed to be and was only about 10 feet across and 7 feet wide. Very small. The water she stood in though looked clean and felt nice, after you got past the lack of temperature part. Doing a quick dunk to rinse off the soap, she tackled her hair, working out the knots and took one final dunk to wash out the last of the soap before climbing out of the water.  
  
The towel that was provided for her was thin, thread bare, and short. Drying of was a little difficult because of these things, but she was able to do it before an attendant came to drag her out.  
  
Said attendant led the slightly shivering girl that was garbed only in a towel that was too small down a narrow hallway and into what seemed like a changing room. Karasu and Bui were already there, as well as a few other demons that had also just bathed, none of them too savory looking.  
  
"Here are the clothes," the attendant said, shoving a bundle into Yusuke's arms and almost making her loss her grip on the towel. "Dress quickly, Toguro wants you back up in the cells as soon as possible." Then, the strange guy turned on his heels and exited the room, Karasu and Bui right behind him, both dressed in what looked like the exact same clothes they came in.  
  
Looking around the room, Yusuke felt a slight twinge of annoyance that some of the demons were actually looking at her expectantly. Some of them looked as though they were ready to leave, but were waiting to see the show.  
  
Setting the bundle of clothes down gently, Yusuke cracked her knuckles gently. She might have been hurt and no where near full strength even now, but that was not going to stop her from teaching these demons a lesson or two on modesty and respecting it.  
----------  
The fight against the demons in the dressing room had been appallingly simple, but had become very funny when attendants came to see why so many fighters were stacked in the hall, many only partially dressed.  
  
By that time, Yusuke had already pulled on the clothes that were in the bundle. They consisted of a simple pair of blue pants and a purple tee- shirt. The pants were a little big, as was the shirt, but they seemed to suit her. She did feel a bit strange though, the clothes were obviously meant for a girl and she was used to wearing boy clothes.  
  
Taking a deep breath, she went back out into the hall where attendants were still trying to clean out the fighters, easily avoiding the major messes, and found Karasu and Bui at the end of the hall, Karasu impatient, and Bui, who knows?  
  
As soon as she was in sight though, both turned and walked back down the hall toward the stairs that led back up to the main portions of the fortress.  
  
Yusuke was very glad to be able to get out of the bathing area but dreaded going back to the cells over Toguro's sanctum. The demented little freak could be there waiting for them, more specifically, her, with hopes of being able to hand out more punishments. Thankfully, Bui and Karasu didn't seem to want to bring attention of their arrival either. They snuck into the room and into the door that the kitchen was behind. Yusuke followed, hoping for food.  
  
Sure enough, inside the tray now held three bowls of hot soup and three bowls of rice. Yusuke recognized the soup immediately as Miso soup with mushrooms, and her heart sank slightly. Miso soup wasn't very filling. Luckily though, the bowls were each almost big enough to hold 2 cups of soup, so it wasn't a total waste.  
  
As the three sat and ate their meal, each kept a sharp ear out for signs that the brothers were approaching.  
  
Bui finished first, and left the other two, hoping to make it to his cell without being seen. Yusuke finished mere seconds later and stood up to leave as well when suddenly, a hand from Karasu stopped her in her tracks.  
  
She watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small square of paper that Yusuke immediately recognized.  
  
"Who is this?" he asked, pointing at one of the small, smiling figures on the paper.  
  
"That's a photo of my friends and myself."  
  
"I know," Karasu continued to whisper, "but who is this boy?" he persisted, pointing at a redhead in the photo.  
  
'Forgive me for what I'm about to do, Kurama. I don't think you want this guy interested in you.' Smiling gently, she answered, "That's Shuuichi, but everyone calls him Kurama. He's my boyfriend."  
  
Then, quickly grabbing the photo from a stunned Karasu, she raced across the kitchen, through the big room, up the stairs, and into her cell. Behind her, the lock turned, locking her in for the night.  
  
Looking around the room, she quickly sought out a place to hide the photo of herself while wearing her mask, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama. The only place was under the mattress.  
  
'It'll do for now,' she thought as she shoved the picture under the mattress. 'I hope this doesn't blow up in my face.'  
---------- Saria: Soooo, what do you think?  
  
Tori: Like it? Hate it?  
  
Zas: Shut up! Just review!  
  
SA, Saria: He's here sooner than expected! Everyone, meet my new muse, Zas!  
  
Tori: TT That's not a girl, or a baby... 


	12. Ch 12 Tournament Approaches

Saria: Alright! I'm able to write another chapter!  
  
Zas: (has just finished duct-taping Tori to a chair) Maybe now we can dispense of the silly little girl.  
  
SA: (Is staring at Zas) No fair! I wanted to do that! (pulls out the 50 pound mallet the same time as Zas pulls one out as well)  
  
Saria: Those two are meant for each other. Anyway, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, and probably never will...T-T  
  
SA and Zas: (are pounding each other with the mallets) And you never will! You're just a broke college student now. Now start the fic!  
  
----------  
  
The next few weeks in the fortress came and went too fast for Yusuke to keep track of the days, but she found a schedule on how things went. Every morning that passed, she would get breakfast with Karasu and Bui in the tiny kitchen place. Karasu hadn't forgotten about Kurama, and often asked questions about him. Yusuke eventually found a way to ignore the questions of, "How good is he in bed?" or better yet, "How BIG is he?"  
  
Most evenings they would get dinner, if the brothers thought they had trained hard enough. This usually meant that Yusuke had to have a limp and several bruises, and that either Bui or Karasu also had to have some sort of wound. Baths were allowed only once every three to four days, and then only with Toguro's permission.  
  
Training on the other hand, was every day and lasted anywhere from twelve to fourteen hours. Once a week, Toguro would test her to see how she was progressing, each time the fight lasted a little longer than before. On the second time, she'd actually lasted for 25 minutes before she lost power and Toguro had knocked her out. Altogether, the training slowly killed her each day, stopping only when she was within an inch of death so that the next day she could do it all over again. As harsh as Genkai had been, Toguro's regimen seemed five times harsher; then again, she'd never gone hungry during Genkai's training either.  
  
When the day for the "tryouts" of the tournament team came, it was no surprise that Yusuke completely destroyed the competition. Even the Triad, who had supposedly been training hard for this, couldn't stand up for more than the first five seconds against her. Because there wasn't a second place contender, no alternate was named.  
  
Yusuke was a little shocked about this chain of events. She knew that she was doing better at the training than she had been, but she hadn't actually seen that much of an improvement. She felt the same as when she had first been brought here except she was now too tired to do much more than train, eat, and sleep.  
  
After the tryouts, life didn't get any easier. Karasu and Bui extended training so that it lasted so long anymore, it was often either near or past midnight before she was allowed to sleep. Little by little though, she began to notice a difference. Both were starting to sweat during the training and resorted to fighting her in alternating intervals, though in the end she was still always defeated. The defeats were starting to become harder for the two though, and started taking longer and longer for them to achieve.  
  
'I want to go home,' Yusuke thought one day during the training. 'I want to sleep in my bed, eat my food, and watch TV. I even miss school, especially playing hooky and going to the arcade instead. Why me?' At that second, her frustration and anger with that question skyrocketed and she punched Karasu so hard, that he flew into a wall at the other side of the room, and followed it with a kick that launched Bui right after him, barely missing him though by about 2 inches.  
  
All three were shocked by this sudden strange turn around, normally it was Yusuke being thrown into a wall. The silence lasted only a few more seconds as both demons collected themselves. The silence was broken by Karasu though, as he reached for his mask.  
  
"It seems that the real training will finally be able to begin, and with three weeks until the tournament starts." He promptly removed his mask and inhaled, his hair turning blonde right before her eyes. Bui was removing his armor and for the first time, Yusuke saw them both without their restraints.  
  
Karasu was actually quite attractive, not her type though. She had expected that he had some sort of disfigurement that he was covering, but that was obviously not so. Bui on the other hand, looked older, strange in a different sense. Or maybe that was just because of the big purple bruise/scar on his forehead. That's when their energy levels hit her.  
  
'Not good.' was her only thought.  
  
----------  
  
The brothers were once again watching the training that was going on inside of the room. Neither had spoken so far as they watched the improvement that had happened to Yusuke's fighting abilities. The younger was the one who eventually spoke.  
  
"She has definitely improved from the original 16%. During the last testing fight I had with her, she actually stood up to almost 55%."  
  
"Well," the other said, sitting on his brother's shoulder, "that means she is almost four times stronger than originally. She won't get stronger as fast now though. She's more than strong enough now for the tournament."  
  
The younger shook his head slightly. "She can still be stronger though. I've just received word from Sakyo that Genkai has made a bid to enter the tournament. As a leader for the guest team, one that she assembled herself."  
  
The elder turned his gaze back into the training room where despite a tremendous effort; Yusuke was slowly having her butt handed to her by Karasu and Bui. She'd need different clothes soon; Karasu's bombs were destroying the ones she was wearing. The younger however continued to talk.  
  
"There is no doubt in my mind that she is entering in an attempt to rescue her precious apprentice. She never took well to the idea of taking someone else's hard work and presenting it as your own, this would be no exception."  
  
"So, do we keep her under close observation and prevent a meeting?"  
  
"No, we keep her under observation, but give Genkai plenty of opportunities to get to her. She will undoubtedly try to help Yusuke in a way that will make Yusuke more capable of fighting us. Let's see what happens." He smirked and laughed slightly at the thought.  
----------  
  
The last three weeks before the tournament were the most painful of all for Yusuke. She barely was able to improve enough to avoid major hits from Karasu and Bui, who both were much stronger and faster without their restraints. Her energy attacks became much stronger though, and her dodging improved, but she was still hurt so badly each day that if Bui or Karasu didn't help her back to the cells (which wasn't very often anyway) she either slept on the floor in the training room, or if she was hungry enough, she would crawl back to Toguro's sanctum. She couldn't get up the stairs anymore without help, so she usually ended up crashing in the kitchen.  
  
Once she had tried to get to her cell, but she was so exhausted that she had fallen asleep in the hall at the foot of the stairs. The elder brother had caught her there during the night and the punishment had been three days of training without food. By the end of the three days, she hadn't been able to move at all, in an act of pity Bui had actually carried the girl piggy-back up to the Toguro's sanctum, their prison, and had given her half of his meal to add to her own. Karasu hadn't done anything to help nor hinder.  
  
The younger Toguro called an end to training three days before the tournament and ordered all of them to focus on preserving their strength and healing their wounds. Yusuke could have kissed him right then, but she was to busy trying to scrape herself off the training room floor. Karasu's previous attack had been brutal.  
  
----------  
  
"Are you certain that you want to go through with this?" an aged voice asked. "There are many beings that owe me favors or would love to aid me in this."  
  
"No," replied a wise, young voice. "Master Genkai, we made our decision. Yusuke is our friend, and we will help her in anyway that we can."  
  
"Hn," said another voice. "Besides, Yusuke owes me a fight."  
  
"I, the Great Kuwabara, have yet to defeat Urameshi also! I will go so I can pound her!"  
  
"Good, now we just need a fifth member for our team. And I know just the person."  
  
----------  
  
The three were once more gathered in their meeting place. They stood in the traditional triangle, showing respect for each and granting them their space. The first to speak was the oldest, who took a direct interest in the subject.  
  
"I have found a way to contain her once we bring Yusuke here. She will soon be with us."  
  
"Soon? As in, as soon as we are able to catch the child? She has not let her defenses down even once when she was most exhausted, how are we supposed to catch her?"  
  
"I have been studying in the field of telepathy since last we met. Plus, the strain of the upcoming tournament is bound to bring her defenses down, even if only for a moment. We underestimated her the first time, but we will be able to win her this time. I even sent some of my trusted subordinates to retrieve the mirror and hide it on Hanging Neck Island. She will be among us soon, probably within the next 10 days."  
----------  
  
Saria: So, what do you think? Please review!  
  
Zas and SA: (are still swinging the mallets at each other)  
  
Tori: OO (is still tied to the chair) 


	13. Ch 13 It's all in the cabinets

Nova: (clears throat, sounding childish) Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...ANIME FREAKS OF THE WORLD!!!!!!(is screaming) Sorry about that, now, here's Saria!  
  
Saria: (turns around) NOVA!!!  
  
Nova: SARIA!!!(both come together and hug)  
  
SA, Tori, and Zas: 00?  
  
Saria: This is Nova, she's my external muse that sits in the corner and claps!  
  
Nova: (squeals with laughter)  
  
Tori: Good! Someone else for you two to pick on!  
  
SA and Zas: No(both shaking heads with grim expressions), she has connections.  
  
Nova: Phem phem, can we get to the fanfic, peaze? (puppy dog eyes)  
----------  
  
It was the day before they were to leave for the tournament, breakfast was waiting in the kitchen area for the three as usual as they trouped in, but a lot more than usual. Each had their own tray!  
  
Yusuke stared at the sheer amount of food piled on each tray and gaped at it in shock. "About time there was a decent sized meal around here!" she shouted gleefully as she grabbed her tray and took it to the table. Karasu and Bui remained silent as they took their own trays to the table. Breakfast was just as silent as always.  
  
Bui, as usual, finished first, and placed his tray on the counter before walking out. A second later Yusuke finished her meal, surprisingly not able to finish more than half the meal. Groaning slightly, she lifted the tray and moved to place it on the counter also, but tripped over the leg of her chair. The remaining contents of said tray sloshed over Karasu, who before seemed intent on ignoring everything but his own slowly disappearing meal.  
  
Turning slowly, seemingly unable to restrain his anger, eyes narrowed malevolently, Karasu whispered, "You did that...on purpose..." Rising suddenly, his chair smashing into the counters behind him, and his mask was slammed down onto the table.  
  
"Uh...oh shit!" Yusuke yelled as Karasu promptly began to inhale deeply, powering up for his attack. She instantly made a mad dash for the door.  
  
"Not so fast!" Karasu screamed as he threw a bomb at the door, blocking Yusuke's escape. The force of the explosion tossed Yusuke into the table, right next to Karasu. The table collapsed from her combined weight and momentum.  
  
Making a quick roll to the side to get away from the infuriated demon, Yusuke powered up her spirit gun, ready to blow off Karasu's head. Karasu, in the mean time had formed several more bombs and begun his assault again. His aim wasn't very good though. Bombs flew in every direction, the counters, the walls, Karasu's food. The last one caused a shower of food to hit both fighters and a moment of calm ensued as both fighters picked the scraps from their eyes and/or hair.  
  
It was during this moment of calm that Bui charged into the room to find out what was going on. The scene was obviously not what he had been expecting, which had been that both fighters would have been horribly injured, not covered in food.  
  
The moment ended and Karasu and Yusuke came together in another round of the fight.  
  
'Oh no,' thought Bui. 'This is going to get dangerous, and I'm going to be saddled with the blame! Maybe I should incapacitate Yusuke and try to calm Karasu down afterwards.'  
  
This plan however, backfired when he moved to attack Yusuke at the same moment as Karasu, hoping to bring her down in one blow.  
  
Karasu however, saw what Bui was doing and yelled through an insane smirk, "This is MY fight!" and turned his attack toward Bui. At the exact same moment, Yusuke landed a punch on Bui that was powered with spirit energy. The result was that Bui was blown from the room and into the wall of the hall.  
----------  
  
Toguro stared at where Bui had just been knocked into a wall, the babbling attendant next to him for once falling silent. The racket that was coming from the kitchen got louder however, and he turned his attention back toward the kitchen area that was now in shambles.  
  
Inside, Yusuke and Karasu were facing off and hadn't noticed him. They were fighting viciously, scratching, biting, hair pulling(though this was more effective against Karasu), and just not thinking at all.  
  
Tramping angrily into the room, he approached the quarrelling fighters and when neither noticed him, he grabbed both by the back of the neck and yanked them apart forcefully.  
  
"What in the hell is going on here?!?" he roared at both fighters who were staring each other down. Neither answered. "Fine! If I can't get a straight answer, I probably don't want to know!"  
  
"It was all his fault!" Yusuke yelled pointing at the demon.  
  
"Shut up!" Karasu yelled at Yusuke, looking as though he'd like nothing more than to bite off the extended digit.  
  
"You're acting like children! Both of you!" Toguro yelled at the protesting Karasu.  
  
"I am a child!" Yusuke pointed out with a smirk. "I'm only 14."  
  
Toguro instantly threw Yusuke into a wall. "I don't like smart ass comments." Karasu grinned at seeing Yusuke thrown into the wall. "Now, I think punishments are in line here. Yusuke, you'll clean up this mess and restore this kitchen by tonight. Karasu, I think you have too much energy you need to get rid of. You will fight me. Bui, you'll spend the rest of the day in your room. There will be no food for any of you until I feel a lesson has been taught." With that, still gripping a now shaking Karasu by the neck, he left.  
  
Bui, having just extracted himself from the wall, murmured something about "Toguro's too lenient on the kid," before leaving Yusuke alone with the attendant in the wrecked kitchen.  
  
Turning, Yusuke began to pick up some of the debris and throw it into the trashcan when the attendant suddenly began to try to spout out orders. Narrowing her own eyes, she yelled "Kiss it!" at the attendant before literally kicking him out of the kitchen by the posterior, and into the wall Bui had just occupied.  
  
"Oh, and on your way out, could you get me a broom?" she called after the attendant.  
----------  
7 hours, 20 splinters, and 1000 muttered curses later...  
  
Yusuke had almost finished the kitchen, and she hadn't used her powers at all! (not that they would have been much help) At the second, she was repairing the last cabinet, it hadn't been damaged too extensively and only required the replacement of the door. She tried to open the door but found it stuck. Grabbing the door, she gave it a hard yank, pulling not only the door off, but the frame as well.  
Many curses later...  
  
The frame was now back in place and the door completed. While insuring that the door opened and closed properly, she noticed what occupied the cabinet. The stack of 'reading' material, the safety objects, the weird objects, the beverages, and the toppings.  
  
"Is that sake? Ooooo!" she said while looking around to insure no one was in the vicinity. "I think it is!" she whispered to herself as she snickered slightly.  
----------  
30 minutes later and a whole bottle of sake and another one well under way...  
  
Staggering out of the now clean kitchen, carrying her bottle of sake close to her heart, Yusuke stared at the newly spinning room when she spotted Kuwabara(or what she thought to be Kuwabara at the time) lounging against the far wall. Slowly and carefully, she attempted to walk up to him, falling right into him.  
  
"Kuwabaka, you need to learn to respect women! I'll tell Yukina on you...I'm sure she'd love to hear about you hitting on me...And when did you get so rock hard, man? You never work out, and last time I fought you, it was like fighting a pillow!" Yusuke mumbled.  
  
Karasu's POV(point of view for those who don't know):  
  
After a...painful...day, Karasu wanted nothing more than to go to his room and sulk. However, right after entering the Toguro's sanctum, he noticed that Yusuke had her arm around a statue and was mumbling something incomprehensible to it. Thinking to ignore this behavior and let one of the Toguros deal with it, he proceeded to walk past. To his deep irritation, he was followed by a yelling Yusuke with a bottle in tow, then was glomped by said irritation.  
  
"Karasu, I love man!" Yusuke slurred happily into his ear. Karasu could smell the alcohol on her breath, and probably could have from miles away.  
  
Karasu immediately slammed his fist down onto the top of the drunk girl's head, stunning her momentarily so he could slip away.  
  
"Ow! So, you like it rough... Ok, I can do..." WHAM!! That was the sound as she fell flat on her face, allowing Karasu to escape unscathed.  
  
Normal POV: Minutes later:  
  
Yusuke peeled herself off the floor, then tried to rescue her tipped bottle of sake from the floor. She was unsuccessful, though.  
  
Again on her feet, Yusuke stumbled back to the kitchen to retrieve another bottle of sake. Opening the bottle and taking a quick drink, she decided to have an adventure of roaming the fortress(possibly to find the mirror again and give it a piece of her mind). Leaving the Toguros' rooms, she stumbled down the hall, not really seeing where she was going exactly, her bottle of sake still in tow and sloshing all over the floor.  
  
A good number of turns, twists, falls, and screams at the invisible alien invaders later, she found a staircase. But it wasn't just any staircase, it had a banister! ( Running to the top of the stairs, the bottle still in tow, though now mostly empty, she jumped onto the banister, grabbed the sake in one hand, the banister in the other, and down she went!  
  
"Whoopee!" she screamed as she zoomed down the unending staircase's banister. She thought this was a great idea until the Toguros came into view, at the end of the staircase. In hopes of getting away(since her brain wasn't working at maximum capacity), she leapt from the banister. But, being inebriated as she was, her jump sent her straight into the elder Toguro who, as usual, was perched on his brother's shoulder. She wasn't really aware of when their mouths met, or when she realized it, but as soon as she did, things got interesting!  
  
"Ew ew ew ew! Yuck! Gross!" she screamed really fast, for once her speech unslurred and comprehensible.  
  
The brother, on the other hand, was on the floor, staring up at the ceiling in shock! His first kiss!  
  
The younger brother stared, completely at a loss for words. Yusuke Urameshi had just unintentionally kissed his brother! A loud thud brought him back to reality. Looking up, he saw shards of what was a sake bottle scattered all over the ground. Then saw Yusuke, challenging him to a fight.  
  
"Say goodnight Yusuke," he said as he moved closer to the girl.  
  
"Good night Yusuke, who's Yusuke? I'm Batman!" the girl exclaimed as Toguro's fist came down onto her head, which was the second blow to the noggin she received that night. This plunged the girl into darkness.  
  
Toguro grabbed Yusuke's ankle and proceeded to return to his sanctum. He gave a warning to the servants, telling them to make sure that Bui would be waiting to retrieve her and take her to her cell.  
  
Once they were in the sanctuary, he dropped her ankle and stalked out of the room to go grab his brother who was still staring at the ceiling. Bui appeared immediately after him, and still feeling sour about earlier that day, he grabbed her ankle and proceeded to drag her up the stairs none too gently, in other words, her head banged on every step and an audible "ow" proceeded that.  
  
The Next Morning...  
  
After waking to an excruciating headache, Yusuke asked herself, "What happened?" The memories came back to her all too quickly, and eyes widening in horror, she made for her toilet, probably in record time.  
  
"I KISSED HIM!!?!?!?" she screamed miserably in a disgusted voice.  
  
At the next moment, Karasu banged into the room, catching a heaving Yusuke.  
  
"How pleasant," Karasu remarked, rolling his eyes. "Toguro would like to have a word with you now."  
  
"I'm busy!" Yusuke yelled between heaves, "Go away!"  
  
"I wonder how your boyfriend will react when he learns you cheated on him. With that THING." Karasu taunted as he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.  
  
Yusuke finished her business soon after the demon had left and went back to bed. She was hoping to go to sleep so she could wake up and find it was a dream. This wasn't meant to be though. Karasu came back soon after, ripped the cover off, grabbed Yusuke by the hair, and dragged her down the stairs.  
----------  
  
Nova: (sitting in corner clapping) Can we get chocolate now?! Mint mint chocolate cho...(the rest is incomprehensible muttering)  
  
Others: Right...  
  
Saria: I think is a great moment to say that I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho and I still don't know how Batman got in there, but I don't own him either.  
  
Nova: Yes you do! I'm Batman! Now, where are the chocolate mint, min...  
  
SA: Where'd you find that loon?  
  
Tori: I think she's nice, she doesn't hit me.  
  
Zas: Shut up! Ok everyone, one and all, please review, Review  
  
All: REVIEW!!!!! 


	14. Ch 14 The Road Trip of Hell

Saria: Nova? No-va?! Ok, I don't think that Nova is going to be with us today...  
  
Tori: I don't see why she gets special treatment.  
  
Zas and SA: (grab Tori and throw her into a closet) Because she has connections!!!! We went over this already!  
  
Zas: Besides, she's taking a nap right now. (tries to run to next room)  
  
Saria: (is holding SA's mallet) Oh no you don't! You are to keep a watch out for that Army woman that keeps running by the window screaming that her troops aren't loud enough! (brandishes mallet angrily) Besides, I don't trust you.  
  
SA: --' Now she's acting somewhat like me. Oh well, hey, wait a minute, give me back my mallet!  
  
Tori: (just got out of the closet) Uhhh...(sweatdrop) I think now is a good time to start the fic.  
----------  
  
Karasu's grip was impossible for Yusuke to break without getting half her hair ripped out, so she followed as best as she could, intent on not being thrown in front of Toguro half bald. The grip didn't get any looser as they descended; in fact Karasu seemed to tighten his hold several times.  
  
His hand relaxed somewhat once they exited the stairwell and his hand went to her neck instead. Yusuke groaned inwardly at this, it meant that Karasu had every intention of taking revenge for yesterday. Karasu was probably going to do something the first chance he got, and it was probably going to involve bombs. Thankfully, he didn't do anything as they moved down a hall that led to Toguro's private areas. It would be the first time Yusuke had been back there.  
  
Karasu dropped his hand from Yusuke's neck at the end of the hall and knocked on the door that was on the left side of the hall. The only reply was that the door opened slightly, just enough for Karasu to shove Yusuke through the door.  
  
Looking around her, not daring to move from the spot where she now stood, Yusuke felt a slight rush of homesickness. This was obviously an antechamber, and it looked a lot like Takenaka's office back at school. The main similarity was the desk, it looked exactly like his, she should know, she'd been in his office almost everyday she had showed up for school. A grim smile stretched the sides of her mouth slightly, but died quickly. Most smiles did by now, after two months of imprisonment and enslavement.  
  
On the left, a door opened and Toguro entered carrying a small sack in his hands which he promptly threw at her. Yusuke caught it without thinking, but didn't bother to look at it, it couldn't be anything good.  
  
Toguro was already behind the desk by the time Yusuke had caught the object and looked back at him. Giving her what seemed like a berating look, he began, "I'm not going to kill you now, Yusuke. Relax." But Yusuke couldn't relax, not in front of her enslaver. This was the guy who had had the nerve to come and tear her away from everything that she had known, enslaved her, and now he was telling her to relax?  
  
"To tell you the truth, Yusuke, last night I honestly thought of killing you. Then again, considering what I've put you through, how could I not expect that you would eventually get yourself intoxicated? However, this is the only time that I will excuse such behavior, from now on you are to act like an adult and make better decisions."  
  
Yusuke could hardly keep herself from gaping at the demon before her. He had taken away her freedom, forced her into this horrible situation, and now telling her she needed to grow up? She'd handled this like an adult so far, or at least as adult-like as a 14 year old could be. She hadn't even complained so far, unlike at Genkai's where she had complained about every little thing.  
  
Unabashed, Toguro continued with his mini-speech. "From now on, you are forbidden to have alcoholic beverages. Now take those clothes and get dressed, I want to leave for the tournament in the next half hour."  
  
Remembering the bundle that she'd caught earlier, Yusuke quickly pulled it open and found the strangest clothes she'd ever seen. In a way, they reminded her of Genkai's outfit, but these were longer, and made from a light green fabric with a red belt and border. There were also some white underclothes and black fighting shoes. Daring to speak for the first time, she asked simply, "What are these?"  
  
"Female fighting clothes. And don't tie your hair up when you put them on."  
  
Yusuke nodded quietly before she left as Toguro dismissed her. He wanted her to go fight in the tournament looking like a girl. And as for the hair down comment, she had a feeling that he just didn't want to have to look at the scar on her neck from where his brother had sliced her hair off.  
----------  
30 minutes later  
  
Yusuke quickly fumbled the second "shoe" onto her foot as she hopped slightly down the stairs. The clothes hadn't been difficult to figure out how they were supposed to go, but the belt, you practically needed an instruction booklet with pictures to figure out how it was supposed to be tied. In the end, she had to seek help from a Bui who had actually laughed when he saw her predicament.  
  
She had barely cleared the stairs before Toguro appeared in the hallway meaning they were leaving. Beside her, Bui, once again wearing his armor, stood stock still as Toguro passed before each of them, as though adding them up. She watched as he actually stopped in front of Karasu and told him to turn out his pockets and empty the small bag he was carrying.  
  
As Yusuke watched, Karasu pulled out his pockets showing that they were empty. His bag however, was a treasure trove, to a horny man. Yusuke watched, horrified, as the "reading material" from the kitchen (porno magazines for you who couldn't figure it out), safety objects (condoms), and a toothbrush were removed from the bag (with a blush from Karasu). Toguro confiscated everything except the toothbrush, shaking his head slightly in disgust, speechless.  
  
Bui's bag consisted of two toothbrushes, a comb, and a romance novel (dime novel smut!). Yusuke couldn't see any blush from him, but no one else saw this as weird. Karasu glared slightly though when Toguro only lifted his eyebrows but handed the book back to Bui, thinking better than to ask where Bui got the novel in the first place.  
  
Yusuke then realized she didn't have anything save for the clothes on her back. Bui chose that moment to lean over and whisper that the second toothbrush was for her. Yusuke winced, hoping he hadn't previously used the toothbrush.  
  
Elder Toguro appeared from the kitchen then, also carrying a bag, cackling at Yusuke. Yusuke shivered, stared at the bag momentarily wondering what he had in there, until he jumped onto his brothers back.  
  
Toguro instantly turned and headed toward the door, smiling slightly as he heard his brother murmur quietly in his ear, low enough so that none but he were supposed to hear. "She looks exactly Genkai did in that outfit. Good enough to eat." At that Toguro frowned.  
  
Yusuke heard the last comment however, and huffed slightly and stopped, knowing better than to strike out. Yeah, it took a lot to not strike out. Bui actually noticed the tensing, quickly grabbed her shoulder, and pushed her along. The Toguros never knew that she had stopped or heard them, which was probably for the best.  
  
They exited the fortress and the group approached a hummer that Yusuke recognized as the vehicle that had been parked in front of her apartment complex. It must have been how they got her here. Biting her lip slightly, she swallowed some bile that had risen in the back of her throat as she climbed into the vehicle as everyone else shoved their bags into the back. Unsurprisingly, she got stuck in the middle when Bui and Karasu climbed in.  
  
They hadn't even been on the road ten minutes before they turned onto a busy highway. Staring out the windows, Yusuke suddenly got a great idea for how to entertain herself. Turning to Karasu intently, ...  
----------  
  
SA: Huh? Where's the rest? Dot dot dot usually means there's more, where is it?!?!?  
  
Saria: Sorry, I got writers block. Someone keeps playing that damn Brittany Spears song. I can't concentrate!  
  
Everyone Else: (stare at Nova who is jamming with her headphones on, but they're not plugged in)  
  
Zas: (hits Nova with a 50 pound mallet)  
  
SA: (turns off radio)  
  
Tori: Some equality at last!  
  
Saria: (shrugs) Wait, there it is! Thank god that person came to their senses! Back to the fic!  
----------  
  
Turning to Karasu intently, Yusuke whispered, "Karasu!"  
  
His answer was an irritated, "What?"  
  
"SLUG BUG!! NO SLUG BACKS!" she screamed as she hit Karasu hard on the arm.  
  
In the front seat, the elder Toguro roared with laughter, the younger looked back, gave Karasu a warning glance that screamed "NO BOMBS!" and "You blow this car up, I'm pulling over." before turning up the radio. Bui didn't do anything.  
  
Karasu gave Yusuke a very nasty stare down that left her trembling slightly. He then turned back toward the window. Yusuke stared at the floor, occasionally giving Karasu a paranoid look.  
  
About ten minutes later, after silence had reigned the car, Bui piped up, "Mail truck," as he slugged Yusuke's arm, leaving a large red spot and sending her crashing into Karasu, crushing him against the door. Karasu, feeling his bubble being invaded, shoved her back into Bui, who pushed her right back into Karasu harder than before.  
  
This backseat tennis went on for a good four minutes before Yusuke yelled out in pain. The elder Toguro instantly turned to rescue his princess and pulled her into the front seat with him.  
  
"Wait! I like it back there! Let me go!" Yusuke yelled in disgust as she pushed herself back into the backseat. Karasu and Bui instantly slid several inches away from her, as if she were dirty. The younger Toguro hadn't bothered to take his eyes off the road.  
  
A few seconds later, Yusuke called out, "I need to go to the bathroom!"  
  
The younger answered, "Hold it."  
  
"I really need to use the bathroom." Yusuke said.  
  
"Hold it," he replied, sounding more irritated than before.  
  
"Nothing would make me more happy than to use the bathroom."  
  
The younger Toguro yelled, "Hold it!" yet again, making Yusuke sit back in her seat, staring ahead. The other brother then turned his head and looked at Yusuke thoughtfully.  
  
Yusuke noticed him looking at her and declared as she started to turn green, "I think I'm going to be sick!"  
  
This last comment caused Bui and Karasu to instantaneously crush themselves against the doors at the same time they yelled, "PULL OVER!" in unison.  
  
The hummer came to a screeching halt at the side of the road and Bui and Karasu ran from the vehicle like madmen. Yusuke, however, made a dive for the nearby bushes. The Toguros also left the vehicle, the elder starting to move toward Yusuke only to be stopped by his brother.  
  
"Go find Karasu and Bui and tell them to come back. I have some business I need to attend to since we're stopped," he stated as he moved toward the tree line. The older simply shrugged and went to find the two missing demons. Watching girls throw up wasn't any fun anyway, though making them throw up was often times fun.  
  
Several seconds later, Yusuke extracted herself from the bushes, feeling a strong need for the toothbrush that Bui had brought for her, and some soap of course. Seeing no one around, she headed toward the hummer, hoping that one of the bags contained the items she sought.  
  
Jumping back into the back seat, she began to rummage through the bags from the seat. She'd have to ask Bui which toothbrush was hers when he came back. Pulling out yet another bag, she noticed it was a bit heavier than the others. As she flipped open the bag, Karasu and Bui reappeared outside the vehicle and lingered outside. Tossing Bui his bag, she asked him to please retrieve the toothbrush.  
  
Pulling open the other bag, she looked into the bag, her face suddenly lost all color, and her eyes blazed as she spotted the elder Toguro staring at the bush she'd just been in. She instantly launched the bag out of the vehicle, spilling the contents (pornographic devices, beverages, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and safety objects) all over the ground. Karasu and Bui both looked up as Yusuke took a running leap out of the car straight for the elder brother. Bui dropped his bag instantly and grabbed onto Yusuke's shoulder, but his grip slipped. Had Karasu not grabbed her around the waist, she would have tried to massacre the elder Toguro (the key word being TRIED).  
  
Bui pushed the now screaming Yusuke back into the car, pinning her against the seat with Karasu's help. A moment later, the two were ripped off her by the backs of their necks. With her new found freedom, Yusuke attempted her attack only to smash face first into the younger Toguro's chest and knocking herself unconscious.  
  
"What was happening here?" Toguro sounded peeved.  
  
"Uh...she was trying to escape!" Bui offered.  
  
"I'll deal with you guys after the tournament." Toguro said as his brother sealed and replaced a black bag into the vehicle. The younger dropped both slaves then, and grabbed Yusuke, carrying her to the front seat as everybody silently got into the vehicle, the elder brother making sure Yusuke's head rested on his shoulder.  
----------  
  
2 hours later...  
  
Yusuke stirred slightly before her eyes opened wide as she sat stock straight as she realized whose shoulder her head had been resting on. Then she let out one of the worst screams that any of the others in the car had ever heard, at least until the younger Toguro reached over and "helped" her out by means of a hard fist to the noggin.  
-----------  
  
2 hours later (on the boat to Hanging Neck Island)...  
  
Yusuke jerked awake, feeling just a little sick, as the surface beneath her swayed slightly. Looking around, she found that she was on a boat and that they were swiftly approaching an island. The younger Toguro appeared next to her a moment later, looking as though he were protecting her. The elder was no where in sight.  
  
Sighing, she leaned back against the railing behind her and waited as the boat drew nearer to the island.  
----------  
  
The three gathered once more, intent on waiting for the moment that was right. Reaching out with their minds, they found Yusuke's mind was more heavily guarded than ever.  
  
"I thought this tournament was supposed to weaken her defenses," one stated.  
  
"Patience," another replied, "this tournament hasn't even begun yet. It will start tomorrow; she will eventually crumble, once she is forced to kill. Still, it is unsettling that she seems to be more attuned to our presence lately."  
  
"It is not us that has put her on high guard," contradicted the aged voice. "Something has scared her in a way that Toguro never could. She is terrified right now, so she is guarding herself. But from what?"  
---------- Saria: Well, how was that?  
  
Nova: That hurt.  
  
Saria: The story you idiot!  
  
Nova: Oh...that really hurt.  
  
Saria: (sighs) Ok, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. But one, I will rule the world and everything in it! And it will be mine, Mine, MINE! Muh ha ha ha!  
  
SA and Zas: (come up behind Saria and knock her out with double frying pans to the head) No more late night caffeine for you!  
  
Tori: You guys just hit the authoress...  
  
SA, Zas, Nova, and Tori: AAAUUUUUGGHHHHHH!! (running away like madmen) Do us a favor though! Review! 


	15. Ch 15 A Night of Hell

Nova: Na la la la, na la la la. La li ho ho li la.  
  
Saria, SA, Tori, and Zas: (are standing on other side of room with their hands over their ears)  
  
Saria: She's been doing that for 72 hours! That idiotic Army woman drove her insane! She's gone though, why hasn't she returned to normal??!??!!!?  
  
Zas: I thought she was just supposed to sit in the corner and clap her hands, what happened to that?  
  
SA: It was pretty pathetic.  
  
Nova: (snaps out of her daze) I resent both of those remarks!  
  
Saria: No, you resemble that remark.  
  
Nova: Why you! (rushes at Saria only to be knocked down by smack from Saria) I'm sorry, you can start the fic now... That hurt. (sulks in corner)  
----------  
  
Next to her, Toguro dropped a sandwich next to the girl's hand before walking off. He had been standing there a good ten minutes before he had done this. Yusuke was unsure of why, but she thought it had something to do with scaring off weaker demons while she'd been out of it.  
  
She didn't particularly want to eat the sandwich, but since she had nothing in her stomach, it was probably better to eat it. Plus, since she'd been in the care of Toguro, she'd eaten many unpleasant meals. Grabbing up the sandwich, she gingerly unwrapped the plastic wrap around it before taking a small bite. The sandwich was tasteless, and it felt a lot like what she'd emptied out of her stomach that day. Still, she managed to suck it up and finish the sandwich.  
  
Standing up, intent upon finding something to drink to wash away the horrible remnants of the sandwich, Yusuke was knocked flat on her face by a very sudden jerk on the boat caused by a large wave. This caused many heads to look her way and a sudden burst of laughter from the crowd.  
  
'Great,' Yusuke thought, 'the tournament hasn't even begun and I'm already making an ass of myself.'  
  
"That was great!" a red head with a heavy Irish accent exclaimed as he floated over. "And I thought this tournament was going to be full of busy, strict and prickish fighters who wouldn't know how to have a good time!"  
  
Yusuke was staring at the red head in a sort of shock, he reminded her of how she used to be before Toguro kidnapped her, in attitude anyway. His hair reminded her of Kurama however. There was also something else that seemed familiar about him, but she couldn't lay her finger on it.  
  
"Been nice speaking to ya, but I gotta go!" the strange being said before flying off to another section of the boat.  
  
Shrugging off the encounter with the unfamiliar being, Yusuke turned her attention back to the matter at hand, trying to find something to drink.  
-----------  
  
The docking and disembarkment of the boat wasn't too bad, if you don't count when the boat slammed into the dock, throwing most of its population to the deck (among them was Yusuke) and then the stampede to exit the boat. The Toguros were very easy to find afterwards, nobody dared go near them save Bui and Karasu, and Yusuke of course (who was holding her stomach and looking a bit pale).  
  
"Lets go," Toguro declared after they had all assembled. Yusuke noticed that several things were different. One; Bui was holding the smut novel in one hand. Two; Karasu's bag looked a little fuller than it had been. Three; the elder brother's bag was missing, and he looked a bit dismayed and disappointed.  
  
Pushing through a crowd of the apparitions that had assembled on the dock, Toguro led the group toward a rather large hotel that could be seen over the tree line, a good distance from the dock. Right as the dock ended though, Yusuke got a very painful tug in her stomach which caused her to bend over and choke.  
  
Hearing the coughing and hacking, the group stopped and turned to find Yusuke once again getting sick, only this time without the cover of the bushes or safety of a toilet.  
  
"And here she goes again," Karasu exclaimed in exasperation, taking a step away from Yusuke.  
  
Surprisingly enough, Toguro actually waited until she was done before having Bui grab her and drag her along to the hotel. Along the way though, Yusuke kept feeling the need to throw up, even though her stomach was empty. This made the trip excruciatingly long and painful in some ways. Karasu looked ready to throw up himself.  
  
Once they were all in the room, Yusuke was dropped off in the bathroom with a glass of water. No one bothered her until dinner time, about an hour later to check on her. Bui was the lucky "volunteer", mainly because he truly didn't mind. He found her lying in a fetal position in front of the toilet confirming that she wasn't coming to dinner.  
  
"Do you want anything?" he asked the girl.  
  
"Let me die..." she miserably replied.  
  
"Right," Bui said as he raised an eyebrow and walked out of the door.  
  
After dinner, Toguro walked in to find Yusuke hugging the toilet. "The floor got too hot, so did the wall," was her explanation when she noticed him staring at her. "May I have a blanket, it's cold." Toguro shook his head, now quite sure that Yusuke was going insane from sickness but still, he walked out of the room and moments later Bui came in with a blanket.  
  
"You might want to flush the toilet every once in a while, that's disgusting," he said as he reached over and pushed the handle for her before leaving.  
  
Yusuke took the blanket and curled up on the floor after Bui had left and fell asleep soon afterward. It wasn't until many hours later that she was awaken by Bui "needing to use the facility." Yusuke moved out of the bathroom slowly, barely aware of Bui closing the door after her. She only wandered around, looking for another place to lie down until she could have her nice, cold floor back. She climbed into a bed that appeared in front of her that was empty, and snuggled into the covers, falling asleep almost instantly.  
  
Bui finished his business a few minutes later and returned to his own bed. Karasu, who had jumped into line as well, returned to bed a few minutes after that. There were a couple minutes of silence as everyone in the room slept in peace. But as the wise saying says, "All good things must come to an end." That end was when Karasu rolled over. And felt the presence of a warm body (in fact, an extremely warm body).  
  
"WHAT THE HELL!!" Karasu screamed as he launched himself from the comfort of his bed, praying he wasn't covered in vomit. Still lying in the bed, unaware of Karasu's scream, Yusuke simply shifted in her sleep, it was actually pretty cute to watch. Cute enough for Karasu to leave her alone, plus he didn't want to run the risk of her throwing up on him if he tried to move her.  
  
Storming over to Bui's bed, Karasu decided to play a horrible trick to wake the big lump up. Smirking, Karasu leaned in close to Bui's head before screaming, "OH MY GOD! IT'S NOON! TOGURO'S GOING TO KILL US!"  
  
Bui promptly shot out of the bed and ran out the door before realizing he'd been had. But by this time, Karasu had already taken the bed, and thinking better than to cause a scene that Toguro might hear, he decided to take Karasu's bed, instead. Only problem was that he found Yusuke already in it when he went back into the room. 'No problem,' he thought, 'I'll just take the couch for tonight.'  
  
However, when he attempted to lie down on said couch, he found that he didn't quite fit. He was just a little too wide. Walking back into the bedroom, apologizing to a sleeping Yusuke, he picked her up in her blankets and carried her to the couch. Then, after stealing a blanket from Karasu's, or more appropriately, his former bed, he lay down again for some sleep.  
----------  
  
Hours later, right after 3 AM, Yusuke woke up again, feeling a very strong urge to throw up. The problem was, she didn't know where she was! Jumping up, the blankets tangled around her feet and followed her as she ran for the first thing she saw, a balcony. She threw up some of what was the remaining contents of her stomach over the railing before returning to the room and finding the bathroom. Of course, along the way, she ran into several walls, doors, furniture, and other such things.  
  
Bui also woke up, about thirty minutes later, to the musical delights of a human getting very sick. Groggily, he told himself he should go check on her, and he did, twenty minutes later, when he finally got his ass out of bed.  
  
Karasu woke up to the same music, but covered his head with a pillow to try to block out the beautiful notes of hacking and coughing with the occasional sound of gallons of liquid going into gallons of liquid. This went on for thirty minute intervals throughout the night.  
----------  
  
The next morning, Yusuke was a bit surprised at how quiet and slow Bui and Karasu were (more with the slow than the quiet with Karasu, Bui usually at least said "good morning" sometimes). True, her sickness didn't make her one to talk, but she felt they didn't have a reason.  
  
Around eight Yusuke dragged herself out of the bathroom and onto the couch again, no one said anything thankfully. She couldn't sleep though, because despite her stomach now being very empty, there was still the constant urge to throw up.  
  
At ten, the fights were supposed to begin, and Karasu and Bui left, leaving a very miserable Yusuke on the couch to slowly recover her stomach. After they left, Yusuke was unsure of what happened around her because she fell into a bit of a dumb stupor.  
  
At some point in the afternoon, Yusuke wasn't exactly sure, Toguro came in and said that she would fight in the first round with him against Team Spirit. When she hadn't replied, he grabbed her shoulder and hauled her to her feet before noticing that her temperature was a little too high to be normal.  
  
'A little fever's not going to stop anybody,' he thought as he marched the girl out the door. 'Still, probably should take her to the tournament doctor after the match.'  
----------  
  
The stadium was really loud for Yusuke as she followed Toguro toward the ring where the fights would take place. She resisted the urge to cover her ears as they finally entered the sun washed area. The other team was already waiting for them in the arena, a strange looking fox girl holding a microphone stood there as well. Toguro jumped easily into the ring, Yusuke followed him.  
  
"Heh, where is the rest of your team?" the biggest inquired.  
  
"They were all lazy and didn't want to come." Toguro replied smoothly.  
  
"Can I go back then?" Yusuke asked groggily. Toguro didn't acknowledge her.  
  
"So you were so desperate you recruited a child?" the being shouted now that he had noticed Yusuke.  
  
"She's tougher than she looks. Let's do this as a battle royale." Toguro said, once again ignoring another's question.  
  
"Fine by me," was the reply.  
  
"Alright, we're looking at a battle royale, no other rules have been made!" announced the fox girl. "Let the match BEGIN!"  
  
At that moment, the five opposing fighters released a large amount of spirit energy, so much that they seemed enveloped in the thriving blue mass. But Yusuke had to admit that she wasn't impressed, Karasu and/or Bui could have easily defeated them all within seconds. Suddenly, Toguro's hand grabbed her and thrust her forward toward the energizing fighters.  
  
"The hell?" Yusuke said, still just barely aware.  
  
"You will defeat them all Yusuke," Toguro said as he continued to push her forward. "That is, if you want to get another meal for the duration of our stay here."  
  
The opposing team heard that threat, and instantly the big one from before screamed out, "You coward!" right before they all charged at the two.  
  
Yusuke understood the threat that Toguro had just made and knew that she was going to have to fight now. Turning toward the swiftly approaching team, she charged up her hand and prepared her attack.  
  
The other team, quite sure that she'd never be able to attack were all quite surprised not even a second later when the girl raised her fist and shouted "SHOT GUN!" as a wide volley of blasts erupted from her fist, all of them so strong that the whole team was lifted from the ground and three were instantly killed.  
  
Toguro watched silently, well aware of the sudden silence from the stands as the demons watched three instantly get killed and one hurt so badly he'd not be able to stand up again. Still, it was a bit of a shocker that one had actually survived the assault, and though injured was able to get back up. Not for long though, Yusuke was instantly beside him and pushed him back to the ground, the look in her eyes begging him to stay down.  
  
"Please stay down," Yusuke whispered to the apparition, "he'll make me kill you if you don't."  
  
"And if you had stood aside..." the apparition had begun.  
  
"Then you'd wind up dead, all of you. He doesn't give mercy." Yusuke had replied.  
  
"Well, if you want me to stay down, you're going to have to cut my legs out from under me," the apparition had stated as he pushed himself back up.  
  
"I've had enough of this, Yusuke, kill him." Toguro had suddenly called out. Yusuke couldn't stop the horror that crossed her face, even as out of it as she was, she didn't want to kill.  
  
"Kid, just do it." Yusuke stared at the fighter. "Better dead than defeated, besides, you'd probably be quicker about it than him," he pointed out while nodding at Toguro. Yusuke nodded gently at the fallen warrior before firing a single bullet through his heart, killing him instantly.  
  
Instantly, Yusuke's throat tightened, no matter how much she fought, nothing could prepare her for killing. Even if it was in mercy.  
  
She didn't react for the rest of that day, not when Toguro led her from the ring where the one survivor of the massacre was removed by several workers and carried to the infirmary. She did nothing when Toguro took her to the doctor afterward who took several hair and blood samples before saying she had food poisoning. Yusuke didn't even notice when Bui tried to make her eat that night, but he noticed something.  
  
Leaning and peering deep into her eyes to make certain he wasn't imagining it, Bui wondered in his head, 'Has Yusuke always had slight red swirls in her eyes?'  
  
Yusuke, however, hadn't noticed any change in herself. All she truly felt was pain and regret about the killing that had happened earlier that day. And deep down, in the back of her mind, she could feel the three beings from the vortex, and they were rejoicing. Rejoicing that her shields were beginning to crack.  
----------  
  
Saria: So...what do you think?  
  
Zas: That you are being worked too much so you are purposely trying to make these funny.  
  
SA: She meant what do the readers think! (hits Zas with 50 pound mallet)  
  
Tori: Well, we better ask them, so will you please review? 


	16. Ch 16 And You Thought It Was Over

Saria: (looks as though she just went through a war) Sorry about the wait guys, or is it the look? Has it been that long since I updated?

Zas: No, it's just you. You updated not too long ago, it just seems so long because you have finals quickly approaching.

SA: And you let this happen when you let your parents convince you it was in your best interest to go to a Summer Session at college.

Tori: (enters wearing an apron with pink ruffles) La la la la la!

Everyone else: OO'

Tori: (completely oblivious) Brownies anyone?

Nova: (jumps out of her corner) I WANT ONE! I WANT ONE!

Saria: No! You can't have any, you're being punished! (Nova looks at Saria with puppy dog eyes before turning and skulking back to her corner where she sits and sulks)

Tori: (looks confused) She can't? Why can't she? What'd she do this time?

Saria: (looks at her nonchalantly) Nothing, she just doesn't have a good memory so we tease her. Now on to the fic!

Team Wave, led by Genkai, were sitting in their room, three of them playing cards at a small table, when Kuwabara burst through the door.

"YOU GUYS ARE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!" he screamed.

"Oh great, a raving lunatic," Hiei said from the window without turning around.

"I saw...what did you say shrimp?" Kuwabara shouted, cutting his explanation short. "If you were even half the man I am..."

"This, coming from a complete idiot?" was Hiei's only reply.

"Kuwabara, cut the crap, get to the point." Genkai shouted.

Kuwabara froze instantly (in mid snide remark), before turning and continuing his explanation. "Like I was saying, I saw the matches today. And Urameshi has gotten super strong! Just today, she killed four demons! But it looked like she was being forced."

"Course she's being forced you fool!" Genkai replied in her nagging old woman voice.

"It does concern me that not only has she gotten stronger, but she seems to have gone through some extensive training since her kidnapping," Kurama said. "It would be best to concoct some sort of plan to get Yusuke out of there."

"I agree with Kurama," Hiei piped. "But I don't see how we can defeat Toguro I our present state, especially with this idiot," he added as he pointed at Kuwabara.

Kuwabara opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by Genkai. "You four shouldn't worry about that, I will assist Yusuke. Now, it's getting late, I suggest you all get some rest." With that, she turned and left. As she left, the figure standing against the wall lifted it's head for the first time and followed the old hag out of the room.

Karasu was standing on the balcony (previously mentioned in the chapter before), murmuring something about a red head he'd seen. Bui, who had attempted to strike a conversation with him, shook his head before heading back into the room. Yusuke was presently sitting in a chair staring at the floor.

Earlier that evening, Yusuke had eaten her first meal, though it wasn't entirely by choice. She had been staring blankly at the broth set before her. After an hour of just staring, Toguro had gotten fed up with her and threatened to let his brother force feed her if she didn't eat. This had no real effect what so ever, so Toguro yelled, "EAT!" Yusuke jumped about an inch, but didn't come out of her daze. She did, however, start to mechanically lift the spoon to her mouth, swallowing the broth absently. She managed to keep the food down a good hour before it made its comeback tour. Bui knew this time, she wasn't throwing up due to the sickness.

Since that time, she'd been sitting on the chair, every once in a while a small tear falling.

Knowing that he should say something, he walked over to Yusuke and kneeled so that he was at eye level with the girl. "You should get over it soon Yusuke. It might hurt now, but it'll eventually go away. Killing gets easier the more you do it."

Yusuke had heard enough of the speech long before it was over, and gave Bui a nod as she stood and walked into the bedroom, closing the door behind her. Once she felt as though she were alone, she lay down on the bed closest to the window (Karasu's bed), and stared blankly out at the darkened sky. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that this was the first time she'd seen the sky in over two months, and she couldn't tear her eyes away.

'Is this what my life is going to be like from now on?' she thought. 'Being confined to the dark passages of Toguro's prison until he decides to kill me?' The fear in that thought made her look at the window more closely; before she realized that it was unlocked.

'What the hell?' she thought as she pushed open the window. 'What's the difference between running now and getting caught and killed right off the bat, or waiting for twenty or thirty years of living in a prison before Toguro decides I'm too old and kills me? A couple lives, that's what. Besides, this way I can experience some freedom before I croak.' With that, she silently jumped out of the window, and walked into the forest that covered most of the island.

Yusuke drifted lazily through the forest, not seeing nor caring where she was going or where she went. Above her, the trees seemed to whisper darkly in the night air. Everything seemed almost alright.

"HELLO AGAIN!!" shouted a loud Irish voice that shocked Yusuke so much that she jumped and fell into a stream she was walking next to. The red head guy was hovering several feet away, looking a bit shocked at her reaction.

"Sorry, didn't mean to make scare you," he exclaimed. The girl simply stared at him though with unseeing eyes. "Don't you remember? We met on the boat, guess not. Jin's the name. Yours?"

"Yusuke," she replied, feeling a slight smile tug at the sides of her mouth.

"Nice to meet you Yusuke!" he cried, grabbing her hand, yanking her up into the air, and shaking it enthusiastically.

Jin stopped suddenly, sniffed the air and seemed to search the sky for a second before declaring, "Storms coming, better get inside!" He promptly dropped Yusuke's hand and flew off toward the hotel, causing her to fall right back into the murky water she'd just been plucked from.

As Yusuke pulled herself out of the water again, muttering obscenities under her breath, a hand suddenly appeared before her. She ignored it however, thinking it was probably Jin again, and not wanting to take another swim. As she was standing up however, she found herself almost face-to-face with Genkai. The shock made her fall backwards into the water again.

"Nice move dimwit, still making an ass of yourself I see." Yusuke didn't reply though, instead opting to silently get up again. Genkai was instantly worried, that just wasn't like the Yusuke she knew, and loved.

"What? No witty replies, idiot?" Genkai asked. "What happened to you? Toguro? Killed your first person, didn't you?"

Suddenly, for the first time in months, Yusuke lost it. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she began to scream incomprehensibly, letting out months of pain before screaming about what had been happening during her the captivity. She screamed that she was tired, hunger had become a regular thing, and even when she was sick, she wasn't truly allowed to rest. She screamed about the punishments, Karasu, the Elder Toguro, the inability to control her own life, the cold baths, the Elder Toguro, Karasu, the poor food, and the Elder Toguro. She didn't really complain much about Bui though, there really wasn't that much to complain about, except that he knocked her out every time she was caught trying to escape. Finally feeling the pressure being lifted from her chest, Yusuke broke down into sobs.

Genkai was taken back a bit by Yusuke's comments and general appearance; she'd never seen her student like this. But there was only one way to cure this for sure, a hard blow to the face. Might as well get it over with.

Yusuke was shocked when Genkai punched her across the face, a blow that sent her right back into the stream again, head first. Jumping up instantly, she exclaimed, "Why'd you do that you old hag?!?"

"I thought I heard a violin playing and I thought I could end it by ending your blabbering."

"Turn your hearing aid on then, grandma!" Yusuke shouted as she pulled herself out of the water once more.

"Can it dimwit! I don't want to hear it." Genkai's voice became softer as she continued. "You can't let this destroy you, you need to be stronger. The only way this will stop is if you make it stop, and you do that by defeating Toguro. If you give in, people will die."

"People have died already!" Yusuke replied, tears once again welling in her eyes. "I'm so tired, and Toguro's still so much stronger. He made me kill."

"And how is that any different from Gouki or Suzaku? You killed them before ever meeting Toguro, and why? Because you HAD to in order to survive and you never regretted those! And look at how much stronger you are after only two months, you'll gain strength slower now but you'll eventually get there, but not if you give up. Do actually think that you're alone in there? Karasu and Bui must hate Toguro as much as you, make that your strength! Form an alliance with them!"

Yusuke sniffed slightly, feeling the world come together again, there was definitely hope. Why else would Toguro have them train together? To make them fight each other instead of fight against him! For the first time in months a true smile broke through on Yusuke's face and she began to laugh.

Yusuke looked up again once her laughter died a little, half hoping she could exchange a few jokes with Genkai, to find that her true teacher had been replaced by a rather tall figure who seemed to be seething at the moment. Suddenly, the joke didn't seem all that funny, but she couldn't stop laughing.

Nova: I wonder who it is? (rolls eyes sarcastically)

Saria: I'll bet you three dollars you can't guess it in three guesses.

SA and Zas: This should be good!

Tori: Before this fight breaks out, I will remind you that none of us own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of it's original characters. (And you still can't buy it with seven dollars and picketing) Also(takes up flight attendant voice) we would appreciate it if you would please review.

Nova: Uh...ok! You're on! Uh...is it...Kurama?

Saria: WRONG! (hits Nova on the head with a laptop)

Nova: (looking a little more nervous) HIEI!!! WAIT WAIT WAIT! Hiei is short. She definitely said tall...lets see...ewe w! I got it, KUWABARA!

Saria: Wrong again! (hits Nova with a frying pan and then begins to warm up with the mallet)

Nova: Uh...uh...umm...(hears ding in the background) THE BROWNIES ARE DONE!

Saria, Zas, SA, and Tori: YAAAHHH!!!

Nova: (wipes sweat off her forehead) Woo! Saved by the timer. Oh, and for all you kiddies at home, (and adults who don't have very good judgment)

Saria: So, you mean you, right?

Nova: (sticks tongue out at Saria before continuing) Do not attempt any stunts suggested in this fic, they are dangerous and may cause harm to all who aren't Anime characters.

Saria: You again! I clearly remember you breaking an arm when you jumped out the window.

Nova: (gives her dirty look as another ding sounds) The double chocolate chip cookies!

Zas and SA: (holding brownie tray and staring at each other) How can she have two things in there at the same time? (shrug and go back to gorging)

Tori: (watches Nova dreamily) She's a chocolate goddess!


	17. Ch 17 The Night the Bed Broke

Saria and Nova: (dancing to the music Arabian Nights from Aladdin) WE DID GREAT ON FINALS!! WE'RE AWESOME!!!!!

Zas: (grabs SA's mallet and bashes both on the head)

SA: HEY! That's mine! (grabs mallet from Zas and swings wildly at him)

Tori: Thanks for the three reviews, everyone here appreciates it I'm...WAM!! (is hit by SA who is still swinging the mallet) Boy you hit so hard... (topples over)

SA and Zas: (look around them) WE'RE IN TROUBLE!!

Zas: Maybe Saria won't be so mad if we start the fic?

SA: Unfortunately, she's out cold. Fortunately, I brought my fic extractor machine and an extra helmet, so we can still hook up both her and Nova and get the fic out of them! (jams helmets on both of the unconscious girls) Alright! Everything is set! (flips a switch; nothing happens) I was sure it worked!

Zas: (plugs in the machine) We don't own Yu Yu, Aladdin, or any other commercially manufactured items mentioned in the chapter. (this includes any quotes that might appear) ... Let 'er rip!

"What's so funny?" Toguro gritted from between clenched teeth. This just redoubled on Yusuke's laughter, which now included high pitched giggles.

Feeling as though he wasn't getting through to the laughing girl, Toguro reached down, grabbed a hand full of Yusuke's pink hair, and dragged her out of the water. Yusuke however, didn't stop laughing, in fact, she began to laugh harder. At least until Toguro gave her a very sharp blow across the head. She quieted down pretty fast and stared at him afterwards.

Seeing that Yusuke had finally calmed down enough, Toguro, still keeping a death grip on the girl's hair, began to walk back toward the hotel.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..." Yusuke almost chanted with each tug he made, forcing the girl to keep his much faster pace or else risk going bald, something she definitely didn't want to do.

During this trip, Yusuke stepped into a hole and twisted her ankle. To add injury to injury, the next instant, Toguro gave her hair a none too gentle tug, forcing her to use said foot. "OW!" Yusuke yelped as her full weight went down on her injured appendage. Toguro however, never broke his stride, despite the girl's obvious distress.

At first, she had tried to simply ignore the pain, but that lasted for little more than one step before she gave up on that idea. Trying to keep her weight off of her hurt ankle, Yusuke attempted to hop on the other. This however didn't work as she had hoped. Toguro was just going much too fast. In a last ditch effort to force Toguro to let go...

"SPIRIT GUN!!!" Yusuke shouted as she pointed her finger at Toguro's head only to have Toguro grab her hand with his other hand and twist. In the end, Yusuke, in more pain than before, was now being shoved in front of a now extremely enraged Toguro, her right arm was being twisted so much behind her back, that she could hear her shoulder bone creaking, ready to pop out of its socket if any more pressure were added.

Of course, knowing Yusuke, she wasn't going to take anymore of this crap. So, gritting her teeth, she swung herself around, ignoring the pain as she dislocated her right shoulder and what felt like a gob of hair being ripped out of her head (even though it was probably more like a couple dozen strands). She swung her left fist at Toguro as soon she felt she had a clear shot. Unfortunately, the pain skewed her aim and she missed, but just barely. But even if the punch had hit its target, the intensity would have been greatly diminished.

Toguro, in turn, let go of her arm surprisingly, yet simultaneously tightened his grip on her hair. "So, you want to fight, do you?" he asked, right before his fist plowed into Yusuke's defenseless abdomen, effectively knocking the wind out of her completely.

The rest of the trip back to the hotel went as follows; Yusuke gasped for breath while fighting back nausea, feeling dazed and confused and in tears from the pain. Toguro kept a very firm grip on her hair but left her arm to dangle uselessly. He also made sure that when they got back that they took the service entrance instead of making a scene in the lobby.

Upon reaching the rooms that Yusuke shared with Bui and Karasu, Toguro simply shoved her in and told the two to 'fix her up' and that 'he'd return to retrieve her' then left.

"Now ya gone 'n done it," said the window washer as he passed by their window.

Bui, walking up to her, simply grabbed her right shoulder and jammed it back into its socket. This however, caused Yusuke to yell like there was no tomorrow. Bui, unaffected by the howls of pain, hauled Yusuke over to the couch and began to examine her ankle after removing her wet, dirty shoe.

"What were you trying to prove?" he asked as he grabbed some bandages for her ankle.

Yusuke shot him a dirty look before muttering, "Shut up."

"Let me guess, you tried to escape, were caught, and fought back?" Bui continued, as he wrapped her ankle.

"Is it that obvi..." Yusuke's question was cut off by a hiss of pain as Bui tugged on the bandages.

"Painfully so," Karasu replied nonchalantly, chuckling at his own joke.

Ignoring him, Bui asked, "And, what did you learn from this?"

"Violence is always the answer, except in this case because you'll get your ass kicked." Yusuke answered after a few seconds of thought.

"Isn't that the truth," Karasu stated with a chuckle as Bui also smiled, shook his head, and finished wrapping Yusuke's foot.

"Go get a shower," Bui said as soon as he'd finished. "And don't take too long either."

"But the bandages'll get wet!" Yusuke protested. "Plus I don't have anything else to wear!"

"They'll dry." Bui replied. "As for the clothes, borrow some of Karasu's."

"WHAT???!?!?" Yusuke and Karasu screamed in unison, both with equal looks of horror painted on their faces.

"You heard me now go before Toguro comes back and you're really going to be in for it. Don't think he's going to let you off easy this time. And don't think about sneaking off again," he called as Yusuke stormed into the bathroom, "I'm watching you."

10 minutes later, and a squeaky clean Yusuke

Yusuke was gingerly toweling off using her left arm, since her right one had a dull pain that became sharp when she used it, when she heard rapping on the bathroom door as well as Toguro's voice yelling, "Time's up Yusuke. Get out."

"But I'm naked!" she yelled at the door before realizing she probably shouldn't have said that. She didn't know if the elder Toguro was present or not, but worse, she didn't know if the younger would just smash in the door.

"Don't give me any lip! Now get out here!" was the yelled reply.

Quickly wrapping the towel around herself, Yusuke cautiously opened the door. When the door was opened enough for her to see Toguro, clothes were oddly enough thrown on her. "You have five minutes," Toguro called.

Yusuke grabbed the clothes up eagerly to find to her dismay that they were an exact replica of the ones that now lay in a filthy pile on the floor. She quickly dressed, once again having a bit of trouble with the belt/sash. Still, she managed to dress within three minutes. She didn't leave the bathroom however, until Toguro knocked again to tell her that time was up. In a not-too-happy-camperish voice.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Toguro immediately took hold of her right shoulder and squeezed hard. Yusuke, for her part, tried her best to keep a straight face and not show any signs of pain.

"I haven't thought of a fitting punishment yet, but I assure you it will be a stiff one," Toguro said as he guided her out of the bedroom. "As for the escaping bit, I know of the perfect way to insure that that doesn't happen again." His hand tightened horrendously on Yusuke's still aching shoulder.

"That hurts you know," Yusuke gritted as she fought back the little spots that began to cloud her vision. 'Damn, he's treating me like a child! It almost seems more like he's punishing me for getting dirty than sneaking out or fighting back. He...' She never got the chance to finish that however, as Toguro suddenly ordered Karasu to join them.

Once all three of them were out in the main room again, Toguro reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

"I don't like the direction this is going," Yusuke muttered.

Toguro then proceeded to clip one of the cuffs to Karasu's right wrist and the other to Yusuke's left. Karasu, oddly enough, held his tongue through all of this. Yusuke however, yelled, "I think this is a little inappropriate, and not very practical." Yusuke then gestured at her arm which now couldn't be held at her side due to Karasu's taller stature.

"Shut up," Toguro simply stated after a few more comments on Yusuke's behalf.

"But what if one of us needs to go to the bathroom?" Yusuke yelled as Toguro turned to leave.

"Hold it," was all Toguro said as he walked out the door.

"Very funny." Yusuke called after him.

"Come on." Karasu's irritated voice broke through some of Yusuke's own irritated name calling of Toguro, of course it was in her head. He pulled on the cuffs and managed to drag Yusuke to one of the couches in the room. Across the way, Bui sat reading the smut novel, which Yusuke saw was titled, 'Across the Lay'.

For several minutes, silence dominated the room, as no one moved save Bui to turn the pages of his book. 'I'm bored,' thought Yusuke, who was starting to feel very much like her old self. Glancing over at Karasu, she thought of a great way to entertain herself, and a cheeky smile once again spread across her face.

Instantly grabbing her stomach a screwing her eyes up, Yusuke did her best to try to look as sick as possible. Turning to Karasu, she murmured in a low, strained voice, "I think I'm going to throw up..."

Karasu's eyes widened instantly in horror as he stood fast, unknowingly pulling Yusuke into the table. Yusuke in turn, tripped because of the table, and landed on top of it, pulling Karasu down with her. At this moment, Bui looked up to see the table crash under the weight of the handcuffed duo, and if this wasn't bad enough, Karasu was in a very compromising position with Yusuke (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Bui calmly set his book down onto the armrest of the chair while Karasu and Yusuke got to their feet as well (more or less, Karasu stood and then yanked Yusuke to her feet). Both of the handcuffees were obviously about to start arguing again when Bui voluntarily said, "Shut up and lets get rid of this before Toguro reappears." As if on cue, they all heard footsteps coming down the hall. Swiftly, two of them jumped into action, with Yusuke trailing since she had no idea what they were doing. They jammed the top of the table under the cushions of the couch while shoving the legs under the couch then sitting down in a frenzy. Karasu grabbed Yusuke and shoved her down in the middle of the couch while Bui fetched his book and sat on Yusuke's other side (her right side for all you who aren't keeping up with the fic).

Toguro came charging through the door not even 5 seconds later, catching a calm scene with Bui reading, Yusuke trying to read over his shoulder but failing miserably, and Karasu looking out the window from the wrong side of the couch. The only suspicious thing was that out of all the other furniture, they all chose to sit on that one particular couch. But there was something missing from the room.

"Where's the coffee table?" he asked after a second of thought.

"Well, you see there was a..." Yusuke's voice was instantly cut off by Karasu and Bui simultaneously slapping their hands over her mouth.

"Don't lie." Bui said as he stared at her, hoping to God she would get the point. This got Toguro to look at the three with a suspicious interest. Yusuke didn't know why, but at that moment, Toguro almost looked like a father who was suspicious of his children.

"There was a coffee table?" Karasu asked as Bui put down his novel and also gave the room a once over.

"Nope, I don't remember a coffee table either." Bui added before raising his book once again.

Yusuke, who was sitting between the two, couldn't believe what was happening! Karasu and Bui were lying outright to Toguro! But, following suite with the other two, she merely shrugged and pretended that she didn't notice a coffee table had previously been present.

Soon after Toguro left, both of the fighters slapped Yusuke upside the head, Karasu actually yelling, "Are you trying to get us caught?" Yusuke, on the other hand, was now gaping outright at the two, hardly believing what had happened. Bui by then, had pulled out a bottle of super glue and was pulling the decimated table out from under and within the couch.

A few minutes later, after the three had managed to piece the table back together, Yusuke actually let a laugh escape. "Why did you two do that?"

"To keep ourselves from getting in trouble, something you need to learn," Bui answered, putting the super glue away and then once again picking up 'Across the Lay'.

After a few moments of silence, Yusuke piped, "I think we should join forces to rid ourselves of this menace we call Toguro!" She tried to say this as heroically as possible.

"You weren't reading this page, were you?" Bui questioned as he rummaged back five pages and pointing to the section Yusuke had gotten her quote from.

"Toguro needs to forget the handcuffs and invest in a straight jacket. This girl is positively nuts." Karasu muttered. "Come on, let's go to bed before Toguro hears her insane ramblings."

"I agree," Bui said as he marked his place in his book by dog earring the page.

"I'm not sleeping with you!" Yusuke shouted before she was dragged into the bedroom by a Karasu.

"Believe me, you're not my first chose either," he replied as he dragged her over to a bed.

4 hours later...

Yusuke stared out the bars of the cage that seemed to surround her. The bars were thick and unyielding, and made it so she could just barely move. Surrounding the cage was total darkness, save for one spot almost directly in front of her. There, in the light, was another cage and in that cage was yet another girl, but much younger than Yusuke.

The child lifted her head from where it had rested in her knees, as though she had been crying. With tears streaming down her eyes, she looked at Yusuke. The face of the child almost killed Yusuke from the shock, the child was herself!

"I know you recognize me," the child sniffed, her voice still slightly hoarse from crying. "Don't you see what you have done?"

"What I've done? What have I done?" Yusuke asked.

"The cages that you've trapped us in, again."

"ME?! I'm not the one responsible! It's Toguro, he's the one who enslaved me," Yusuke replied cynically.

"No, you enslaved yourself. Both of us. You enslaved us the day you started wearing that mask. And you further enslaved us when you gave in."

"I haven't given in yet." Yusuke's voice was starting to sound irritated. "If I've given in, that means I'd be killing on command and not regretting it! And I do! I regret!"

"But for a time you gave in. You thought that there was no way you could ever beat Toguro. You thought it before you ran off. You tried to run away from your problems, just like you did before."

"When did I run away from my problems?" Yusuke demanded.

"You wore a mask, a mask to hide your face from the world. You thought that by hiding you could erase all that happened. But you couldn't, could you? And that's why I'm here, stuck in a cage for all eternity, because you lost faith in yourself. All because that one guy defeated you after telling you that you couldn't win because you were a girl. You hid yourself behind a mask, trying to make yourself stronger through a lie! You enslaved yourself to your own lack of confidence! You didn't even know the guys name."

"I was 8! What was I supposed to do? My mask seemed like the best solution, and it worked! I became stronger, in fact I became the strongest in the city!"

"But at what cost? We'll never be free now. You'll never have the courage to do it without your mask, and it's gone now! For the rest of our lives we are going to be trapped in these cages because you didn't think you could manage."

Instantly, Yusuke felt herself begin to darken, as a part of herself appeared she had never felt before. A spark lit within her now, one that Genkai herself hadn't been able to ignite within Yusuke's protected heart. Looking back at the child version of herself, she once again spoke, her voice sharp and clear. "No, I won't let this continue. You can stay if you want, but I'm going to free myself. YOU HEAR ME?!? I'M GOING TO FREE MYSELF!! I'LL KILL TOGURO IF I HAVE TO! I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!!!" The last part she screamed at the top of her lungs as she brought her leg back and kicked at the bars that imprisoned her with all her might.

Yusuke was swiftly brought back to consciousness by an inhuman yell that sounded a lot like, "You little brat!"

Once she was fully awake, she realized that it was Karasu, but that was all she came to realize before all hell broke loss (in the form of Bui). Bui had launched himself onto who he thought was Yusuke, thinking she was trying to escape, especially when she had suddenly shouted, "I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!" Karasu had yelled after that.

The sudden addition of weight when Bui jumped on though, cause the bed frame to groan horribly before breaking, causing the bed to fall the one foot to the floor, the occupants screaming all the way down, though for different reasons. Karasu was screaming because someone was throttling him after Yusuke had kicked him, Bui was screaming for Karasu to help him with Yusuke, and Yusuke was screaming in confusion, unsure of what was going on.

The scuffle continued for a few minutes, before the lights in the room came on, and everything just stopped. There in the doorway, stood a very, Very, VERY angry Toguro. Yusuke could almost see the steam rising from his ears. Karasu and Bui, though in compromising positions now, also noticed this, and Bui quickly jumped off Karasu (Karasu being a little out of it after the beating).

"You have 30 seconds to explain this," Toguro gritted as he took in the scene. And what a scene it was! The bed was broken, Bui had been on top of Karasu, and Yusuke had been on the side of the bed trying to escape, the handcuffs preventing such movement.

"Yusuke was trying to escape so I tried to stop her." Bui answered quickly.

"No I wasn't! I was asleep until Karasu woke me up with his screaming and then you jumped onto the bed!" Yusuke shouted as she calmed down from the shock of the recent happenings.

Toguro looked at Karasu who was just snapping out of his own shock from Bui jumping him. Pointing at Yusuke, he said simply, "She kicked me."

"Did not!" Yusuke shouted.

"I'm not getting in an argument with a child."

"Why? Afraid you'll lose?" Yusuke retorted.

"KNOCK IT OFF!" Toguro roared, effectively ending the fight before it truly started. "I think I've heard enough, Yusuke, Karasu, get over here." The two obediently approached the man who unlocked the handcuffs and grabbed Yusuke by the shoulder. Turning to leave, he paused for just a second to give a warning. "Not another sound. Got it?" Then, he left, once again pushing Yusuke in front of him by her shoulder.

"Have fun you two!" she called back as Toguro tightened his grip and pushed harder.

"That really hurts you know," Yusuke said as she entered the hall. The next thing she knew, they had just bumped into the red headed psycho-freak and four others. Red headed psycho-freak of course recognized Yusuke and started to chat happily while bouncing.

"Hello again! Good to see you got in before the storm got here!" When he saw Yusuke's blank look he instantly said, "Forgotten me already? I'm Jin! And I'm glad you avoided the storm."

"No, I'd say that the storm found me." Yusuke said as she nodded minutely toward Toguro, resulting in a sharp shoulder squeeze.

Completely oblivious to what Yusuke meant, Jin continued. "That's too bad. But I could have sworn that the storm hadn't come yet."

"Now if you'll excuse us, I have a punishment to deal," Toguro cut in, as he made to push Yusuke forward.

Jin gave Yusuke a quizzical look before asking, "For what? Getting wet?" This question pulled a very cheeky grin out of Yusuke which quickly turned into a grit of pain as Toguro squeezed her shoulder harder than ever and shoved her forward, not bothering to answer the question.

A few minutes later, Toguro pushed Yusuke through a new door and into a room she'd never seen before. This one, unlike the room she'd shared with Karasu and Bui, had very nice furniture and decorations. The furniture itself, looked a lot sturdier (the whole team could probably jump on any piece and it would still hold up and still provide a soft landing place). She didn't have much time though to investigate the furniture because Toguro took her straight into another room and shoved her into a closet.

"You'll stay in here until I feel you can come out," Toguro said as he shoved the door closed.

"Wait! What if I need to use the bathroom?" Yusuke called through the door.

"Hold it!" Toguro yelled, irritation instantly evident.

Yusuke quietly moved to the back of the closet and sat, her back leaning into a corner. After a few minutes though, she walked back up to the door and shouted, "I'm cold!" as she kicked and banged on the door.

"Not...another...sound..." Toguro gritted, so close to exploding that Yusuke feared that she could be in more danger than ever. Surprisingly though, he opened the door for a second and threw a blanket in which landed on Yusuke's head.

"Thank you." Yusuke called through the blanket, even as the door slammed shut again. 'Oh well,' she thought as she curled up on the floor, 'might as well get some sleep. At least this time I don't have to share the covers.'

Nova and Saria: (Are sitting next to a pool, dipping their feet in the water, fully clothed)

Saria: This fic has everything!

Nova: Yeah, a random comment, broken furniture, yep. It pretty much has it all! (gets up to leave and splashes Saria in the process)

Saria: (splashes Nova back which starts a water fight, Saria eventually pushing Nova into the shallow end)

Nova: No! Saria, I don't have an extra bra! (tumbles into shallow end but manages to keep her shirt dry) Saria! (climbs out of the pool) I wet my pants... (starts trying to push Saria into the pool)

Saria: You're going to get yourself even wetter.

Nova: I don't care as long as I take you with me!

Saria: Good idea! (grabs Nova and both tumble into the pool)

_10 minutes later_

Both walk dripping wet into the kitchen.

Tori: What happened to you two? (in the background, SA and Zas are arm wrestling. Zas wins so SA begins to beat on him with the mallet)

Nova: Well, there was this wet t-shirt contest so Saria and I thought we'd try it out. We got ourselves completely drenched!

Saria: BUT...We found out later that it had to be a white t-shirt, so we got disqualified.

SA: That'll teach you! (has finished pounding Zas with the mallet) What happened to you two?


	18. Ch 18 Bad Language Soap Bubbles

All, except Tori: (sitting around the kitchen table with one brownie in the middle of the table. All are eyeing each other suspiciously)

Tori: (casually walks in) Oooh! One more left and it's mine! (giggles as she reaches for the brownie)

Everyone else: (Rise as one and each pounds Tori on the head with a weapon of choice: one mallet, one cookbook, one ax (held so the broad side hit Tori), and one chair)

Everyone except Tori and Saria: (stares at Saria)

Nova: Couldn't you be more creative?

Saria: My creativity was shot down due to the fact that I WAS TRYING TO BE RESOURCEFUL, MISS COOKBOOK!!! (sits back down on broken chair)

_i_ _ten minutes later_ _i_

SA: That's it! It's mine!

Zas: The hell it is! (a fight immediately ensues)

Nova: (leans over and whispers into Saria's ear) Psst! I've got double chocolate cupcakes in the oven. They should almost be done.

Saria: (stares at Nova as Nova nods) Alright! Oops... (looks back at Zas and SA who are now duking it out) (both sneak away quietly)

_i_ _ten minutes later_ _i_

Saria: (Zas and SA are still duking it out) None of us here own Yu Yu Hakusho, probably never will, however, we DO own this female Yusuke, our original characters, their attacks, and almost anything else not seen in the series.

Yusuke's sleep wasn't peaceful that night, she tossed and turned constantly, even kicking the walls several times. Toguro checked in several times, but didn't awaken her. She wasn't aware of any of this though, the dreams that haunted her at first contained the Elder Toguro laughing at her as she crouched in the cage from her previous dream, the Younger stood not far behind him. He watched seemingly uninterested as the Elder taunted her with the keys, holding them just out of her reach. Then, when her hand was extended, trying to get the keys, the Elder grabbed her and yanked her toward him.

She woke then, screaming her head off. (What disturbed her the most about the incident was how high pitch her voice was.) Of course, a second later Toguro ripped the door open, wanting to know what all the fuss was about. He had given her a sharp eye after doing a visual once over of the closet, then slammed the door shut.

Soon after the incident, Yusuke reentered the realm of dreams again. This time however, Yusuke dreamt that she was in the relative safety of her mind, but she saw the cracks that had begun to form. Behind these cracks, she 'heard' the three talking, felt them pressing on the cracks, trying to get in. Her attention however, was drawn away from the cracks as a mist formed, pushing its way in through the cracks that the three couldn't get through and solidified into the now familiar vortex.

'Let us in,' one of the voices called from the dark end of the vortex. Even as it spoke, she became aware that she could still feel them shoving at her minds defenses, trying to break them.

"GET OUT!" she screamed as she grabbed her head, unknowingly lashing out with her mind at the presences that were attempting to contact her. To her surprise, the vortex shattered around her and the pressure around her mind lifted. But she still felt one presence just outside her mind, felt it shove something through the cracks that it had been pushing at. Then, as she stared, the mirror materialized in the darkness.

"The mirror..." she murmured as she stared at it. "Get it out!" Once again she lashed out with her mind, shattering the mirror. Then, as if it were liquid, the dark mirror reformed itself, its dark surface gleaming eerily. As Yusuke continued to stare at the newly reformed mirror, it seemed to glide up to her as its surface took in her reflection, and once again she saw her reflection in the mirror. Once again, her reflection shifted and her eyes became light purple with the red swirls. Her hair became horribly long and white, and the purple-grey marks once again appearing on her skin. But the mirror continued to come at her.

Yusuke tried her best to step back, but there seemed to be an invisible barrier behind her back, keeping her in place. The mirror inched closer and closer, like a predator moving in to devour its prey. Her minor struggles turned into desperate attempts to escape. Still, the mirror advanced, it was now less than a foot away, half a foot. Yusuke closed her eyes, fearing to look into the mirror anymore. She tried to prepare for the touch of the cold surface...

Toguro was checking on Yusuke at the present time. He had been hearing heavy breathing and was a little concerned. He didn't want to have to pay for carpet cleaning if Yusuke was sick again, at least that's what he told himself.

As he watched Yusuke's face for some sign that she was going to be alright, the girl's eyes sprang open and she sat up abruptly. She was panting heavily and looked quite shaken.

"...T-the...mirror..." She mumbled between pants, completely oblivious to Toguro's presence. Her breathing slowed slightly, and before Toguro's eyes, she began to shake and sweat profusely. It almost looked as though she had a fever.

Toguro reached his hand down and gently touched the girl's sweat covered forehead (or at least that was his intent). Before he knew anything, Yusuke let out a shriek unlike any he had heard before as she slapped his hand away and launched herself backwards, her glazed eyes widened and filled with fright. The force of her 'attempt to widen' the space between her and Toguro had landed her with a nice blow to the back of the head as she ran into the wall behind her. This didn't render her unconscious, but it did however, pull her back into reality. Immediately, her left hand went to the bump that had now surfaced on the back of her head.

Toguro, who had been shocked since the scream came, decided not to ask and simply closed the door. Once the door was closed and locked again, he noticed a slight ache from his hand. Looking down, he found that his hand had several burn marks where Yusuke's palm and fingers had made contact. It looked almost as though she'd done a full palm Spirit Gun, yet he'd not sensed her using any energy. Odd, definitely odd. Shrugging it off, he went to make some phone calls.

The three stared in complete shock at the fried oracle who still lay in the circle she had drawn on the ground to help her focus. The beings once smooth, pale skin now looked as though it had been blackened over an open fire then torn apart. All features were now nearly unrecognizable, and parts had even been melted into the skeleton.

"We have to bring her here soon," one said quietly. "I may be blind, but I recognize that distinct odor."

"She's getting stronger and more dangerous as the days go by. Her emotional stability is becoming questionable."

"Her emotional stability? What about her mental stability? I believe she is quite insane, but learning the power that her emotions can give her. She's positively insane, did you see how she reacted to the mirror?" This was from another oracle that stood nearby. "If you..." The oracle never finished because at that point, the wrath of the oldest of the three came upon him.

"She'll regain sanity as soon as she feels it's safe to do so. This present state is the only thing keeping her going. In her original state, she would have..." He didn't finish this comment when he noticed the tensing of the old one, he really didn't want any wrath today.

To everyone's surprise, the old one approached the oracle who had spoken. Once he was just inches from brushing noses with the other, he whispered, "Are you certain that this is just a defense?" The other nodded dumbly, not wanting to anger his superior. "We'll see," was the next thing whispered. "We'll see. Replace that oracle," he ordered as he stocked off.

"Get up," Toguro gruffly ordered the once again snoozing Yusuke.

Yusuke's eyes fluttered slightly at his voice, so he repeated his order. "Get up, now."

"Ok, ok...I'm up," Yusuke replied as she pushed the blanket off of herself. Standing up, she felt a slight stinging in the back of her head. "Ugh, what did I do last night?" she mumbled as she rubbed the back of her head.

Toguro, for his part, remained silent, as always, though he did raise an eyebrow which Yusuke never saw. Moving aside from the door, he said, "Come on, breakfast."

Yusuke jumped up when she heard the word 'breakfast', but soon realized something else. "Don't I get to use the bathroom first?" she asked as she felt her now full bladder make itself known in the form of a slight pain.

Sighing slightly, Toguro saw he wasn't going to get anywhere with this argument. Nodding slightly, he pointed to a door that was right next to hers and said, "Make it fast."

Yusuke gratefully waddled into the bathroom, trying her best to keep her hands from going to her crotch or crossing her legs. She really didn't want to look like Kuwabara when he was waiting in line for a toilet. The memory made Yusuke giggle a little but stopped fast when she felt herself almost lose it.

As soon as her business was done, Yusuke calmly walked back out the door of the bathroom. Toguro, unsurprisingly, was just outside the door and didn't seem in the least bit uncomfortable about it. Yusuke felt a slight chill run up her spine by just thinking about it.

Toguro took the lead and led her back to the main room that he'd shoved her through just the last night. He had her sit on the floor in front of the coffee table as he moved toward a small cart she hadn't noticed before. A second later, a plate of plain scrambled eggs and a glass of water were set before her.

Yusuke stared at the food in astonishment. "Is this it!?" she exclaimed before catching her tongue.

Without a word, Toguro reached down to retrieve the untouched meal. He once again raised his eyebrows when she offered no complaint about getting nothing. He dumped the plate back onto the cart, and still Yusuke didn't make a peep. This behavior was a bit shocking to Toguro, then again, Yusuke's attitude was all or nothing, there was no in between.

Less than a minute later, Yusuke found herself back in the closet. Yusuke hadn't minded having the food taken back, but she hadn't had any intention to eat it anyway. The dream was still too fresh in her mind. Besides, she didn't care that much for eggs in the first place.

Team Wave sat in their room playing cards yet again, this time over breakfast dishes. Kuwabara at the present time, was screaming that Hiei had to be cheating since he had correctly called b.s. on Kuwabara for the third time. Kurama in the mean time, was trying to get to know the fifth member of their team better.

The girl's name was Tekei (think Tay-kay, ok?). She was 17 years old, an orphan, and a powerful psychic. Her hair was light brown and eyes were a faded green. She was attractive but not beautiful. She also had two little sisters that she'd brought along to the tournament. They were twins and the most adorable three year olds you'd ever seen with their pig tails and chubby cheeks. Their names were Lerei (Lay-ray) and Lesei (Lay-say). Unfortunately, they were identical and inseparable, but they each had their own traits that made them distinguishable. Lerei was bold and fearless, ready to pick a fight rather than apologize. Lesei was a little more sedate and shy, trying to apologize her way out of every fight. Tekei had already decided that Lerei, when old enough, would be trained as a warrior, but hadn't chosen anything for Lesei, she didn't know if the child could stand being separated from her sister.

After an hour of being told about her sisters, Kurama was finally able to distinguish some about Tekei herself. Her father had died shortly after her birth and her mother remarried about 10 years later, making Lerei and Lesei her half sisters. Their father had died in a fight when her mother was almost 6 months pregnant. This had destroyed the woman and she only had the will to live long enough to give birth and name the twins. Tekei detested her for giving up on life. They had tried staying with family at first, but no one wanted to take care of three girls (especially a set of infant twins). Not wanting to split up the twins, Tekei had quit school and taken up an apprenticeship with the agreement that the twins would stay with her. Master Bob had been more than happy to have the girls (all of them), and treated them like his own. It had been through Master Bob that she'd met Genkai, who had taught her a few lessons (she had also offered to take her as a student as well, but Tekei had declined not wanting to abandon her sisters). Now she was repaying the favor.

Without warning, something jumped onto Tekei's back. She whirled around instantly and saw, standing in the doorway, clutching a blanket, was a yawning 3 year old, Lesei. So, obviously, the something on her back had to be Lerei.

"Finally got up, sleepyheads?" Tekei asked good naturedly.

"Mm-hm, we wanna play!" Lerei answered. In the doorway, Lesei nodded also.

"Would you like to play Go-Fish?" Kurama asked.

"We're playing B.S. here! We're not going to stop for two little brats." Kuwabara shouted. He was instantly given the stare down by Tekei while Kurama gave him "the look".

Lerei, seemingly unabashed, replied, "No, we wanna play B.S. too." Tekei looked at Lesei again to find she was also nodding.

"Sissy, what does B.S. mean?" Lesei asked in her quiet voice.

"Bull sh..." Hiei started to answer before he got "the look" from Tekei. It was down right scary even to him.

"Bologna Sandwich," Kurama shouted, in an attempt to cover up Hiei's voice.

Kuwabara looked at Hiei as well, but he was aghast. "Dude, even I know you're not supposed to say bull shit in front of little kids... Oops." This ended in "a look" from everyone at the table, except from Hiei who simply smirked.

"Aaaaaaauummmmm!" Lesei said as she covered her mouth. "You said a bad word."

Lerei calmly jumped off of Tekei's back. Lesei, a few seconds later, came running to her and they whispered quietly for a second before Lesei ran out of the room.

"Where is she going?" Tekei questioned.

"The bathroom," Lerei replied.

Sure enough, Lesei returned a few moments later with blanket in tow. She handed something to Lerei before retreating to Tekei's side. She cuddled up to Tekei's side, still shy of the group.

Lerei charged at Kuwabara at full steam. Before he knew what was what, he was on his back and Lerei was shoving the soap she had in her hand into his mouth.

"Get off of me you little brat!" Kuwabara screamed.

Tekei would have stopped this within seconds had Lesei not tangled herself into her legs, clever little brat. However, this didn't stop her from yelling.

"LEREI! GET OFF OF HIM THIS INSTANT!!"

"But he said a bad word, so I'm washing out his mouth! That's what you do to me." Lerei replied just as Kurama reached her and plucked her off Kuwabara. Lerei didn't like this and started kicking. "Put me down," she pouted.

Kurama put her down a few seconds later. Lerei sat with an undignified 'plop' while crossing her arms and giving them all "the look". Seconds later, Lesei stood and copied her sister, giving them all "the look" and crossing her arms, hers wasn't as believable though. She kept looking at her sister, trying to calculate Lerei's next move so she could copy it.

Tekei stood before the two and in an indifferent voice said, "Lerei, Lesei, you don't act like that."

Both girls, turning on their puppy eyed looks, said in unison, "But he said a bad word."

"I don't care, I'm going to have to punish you."

"Aww, but they're so cute. It's ok." Kuwabara declared suddenly after seeing the puppy dog eyes and being reminded in his mind of Yukina, somehow.

"You know they're being punished because you got beat by one of them." Hiei added.

"Shut up shrimp."

"Maybe we should have that child replace you since a three year old is stronger than you. We may even have a chance at finishing this tournament undefeated."

"I'm a real man! I don't hit women or children."

"A man that got defeated by a THREE year old."

"You want a piece of me? I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!"

Everyone gave Kuwabara the look again even as Lerei jumped up and declared, "I'll get the soap!" She was grabbed moments later by a disgruntled Tekei while Lesei held her knees and rocked back and forth, apologizing in hopes that the yelling would stop.

Saria: (yawns) I think I'll go to bed now... (walks away from computer)

Nova: Me too.

Tori: (appears in bathrobe with a beauty mask on her face) Why do I have to do this? And dressed like this?!?! Oh well, end of chapter, thanks for reading. Please review, if you don't, well, just think of the worst thing and I'll make you dream it as well as cover your face with my mask.


	19. Ch 19 Case: Closet

Nova: (Looks around as if paranoid with cookbook ready to clomp the first person seen)

Zas: (sneaks up on Nova) BOO!!!

Nova: (screams like a little girl) AAUUGGHHHH!!!! (smacks Zas with the book)

Saria: (jumps out of nowhere, video camera in hand) I GOT IT!!!

Nova: (slowly turns head at Saria)

SA: (walks in through door situated behind Nova) Hey guys... (is smacked by Nova)

Saria: MAN!!! I missed that.

Tori: Finally! Someone besides me is hit!

Saria: Nova, you aren't good with scary movies, are you?

Tori: But Barney isn't scary...

Saria and Nova: (both look at Tori with paranoid looks as Saria grabs her trusty chair) Never... utter... that name... EVER... again...

Tori: All right, all right. I'll do the disclaimer. (clears throat and states in an official tone) We don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, but we are working on that at the present moment. We DO own this version of Yusuke though, Tekei, Lerei, Lesei, and... Toguro's closet! HAHAHA!!!

The younger Toguro had placed Yusuke in the closet not even an hour before she had fallen asleep again. She was dreaming again, and the mirror wasn't present (a good dream). In this dream, she had just killed the Toguros, had scalped the elder, and ripped the arms off the younger. Then, she began to run across a very long field, and as she ran, the blood and dirt on her body evaporated as she screamed "Free, Free, FREE!!"

Her dream however was short lived as she awoke to the sound of the lock clicking. The door opened as she sat up, revealing a pair of disgusting yellow eyes.

"There you are my pretty, right where my brother left you. You know, he's been trying to keep me away from you, but I found you, oh yes I did." The Elder Toguro snickered as he pushed himself through the open door to sit next to Yusuke.

Yusuke had become very nervous by the time he said "oh yes I did." But yet she remained where she was, not wanting to risk Toguro's wrath. She decided to risk it however when he raised his filthy hand to touch her face. It took all of 5 seconds for her to fly out of the closet, and for that matter, out of Toguro's rooms. All the while though, she could him behind her.

After running for some time, she decided to change her strategy from escape and evade to hide and evade at all costs! Unfortunately, her first few hiding attempts failed miserably.

First she had tried to hide under a chair. He had found her easily, coming inches from touching her. She had ran off again and decided a more practical approach, disguise.

She had then run to the hotel supply room, which was unlocked, or at least it was after she knocked the person just exiting it through the door (unintentional). There she had "borrowed" a bellhop uniform, complete with a hat. It seemed like a really great idea, no one had even noticed the extra help, and she had made a few bucks in tips. This charade however, came to an end when while taking some suitcases up to a room, there was no one there, or at least that's what she thought. When she had bent down to put down the suitcases, the Elder had snuck up behind her.

"A French maid costume would be better, at least I'd get a better view." Yusuke thought that was the worst pick up line anyone had ever attempted. The Elder though, was laughing at his own joke. Hearing his voice, she had spun around. He had flipped her hat off the second she was facing him, running his hands through her perfect pink hair.

Yusuke had instantly knocked him down and raced out the room. Once in the hall, she had spotted a rather promising laundry chute. She had dived in without a moment to waste. Several floors down though, she stopped her fall with her hands and feet then shoved herself out of the chute through another chute opening. She was glad to see she was only a few floors below Karasu's and Bui's room. Hoping to miss the Elder Toguro in the elevator (the elevator being the only "guest" mode of transportation to the laundry room), she sprinted for the stairs.

Arriving at the door, she knocked casually. Moments later, Bui opened the door. He seemed to be unable to get over her appearance.

"That... is the worst disguise ever, Yusuke." He said after he noticed the lumps of rumpled up clothing under the bell hop uniform.

"So sue me," she muttered. Noticing that Bui was closing the door, she immediately shoved her foot into the door frame and yelled, "You gotta let me in, Toguro's after me!"

"No wonder," Bui grunted as he tried to slam the door as Yusuke jumped forward and blocked the action using her body. "You're trying to runaway again!"

Yusuke felt her jaw drop when she realized which Toguro Bui thought she meant. "Not that Toguro, the other one!" she screeched as she gave the door one final, unsuccessful shove.

Bui stopped mid shove at the comment, then Karasu grabbed the door and yanked it open, smashing it into Bui's mouth, grabbed Yusuke, and dragged her into the room. Bui recovered soon after, just in time to rescue Yusuke as Karasu tried to hide her beneath the sofa cushions where they'd hidden the coffee table earlier. He was NOT going to sit on her, and he didn't think she'd take that sitting down either.

After several attempts to find a good hiding place (this included hanging off the balcony, behind the toilet, and being thrown on top of the ceiling light fixture), Karasu and Bui finally agreed on the perfect, most unexpected place: the closet. They didn't even ask Yusuke before they shoved her in.

"Oh joy, another closet!" Yusuke muttered under her breath.

About 5 very long, agonizingly quiet minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Bui, who had gone back to reading, and Karasu, who was once again staring out into open space, both tensed a little but hid it well. In the closet, Yusuke tensed also, but didn't bother to even make an attempt to hide it. Seconds later, the Elder Toguro barged through the door.

"Where is she?" he instantly demanded once he was through the door.

"Who?" Karasu asked. Yusuke sweat dropped at this comment, no one fell for the "I'm-so-innocent-I-don't-know-what/who-you're-talking-about" anymore! She should know, she'd tried it!

Sure enough, Toguro didn't fall for it. "You know who, you ingrates! Now where did she go?"

Bui chose that instant to step in. "She came by a few minutes ago and asked where your brother was. I think she went to find him." Inwardly, Yusuke cheered. Bui had come up with an almost believable lie, one that she should have done. Now, if only the brother would buy it. Thankfully, he did.

_i_ _15 minutes later_ _i_

Yusuke had gotten so bored that she had left the closet and was once again reading Bui's book from over his shoulder, ready to run at the first sign of danger. She had actually begun to get interested when the smut novel began describing what the couple was doing (wink wink, nudge nudge). The sign of danger came with a knock on the door, at which point Yusuke ran back to the closet. She barely made it before the Younger Toguro came in.

"Where is she?" he asked in his gruff voice. Karasu and Bui simultaneously pointed at the closet.

"Thanks you guys, a real help," Yusuke criticized as she came out of the closet. Walking back to her previous position behind Bui's shoulder, she resumed reading.

Toguro, now interested in what could get Yusuke's undivided attention, sauntered over himself and read about a paragraph before shaking his head in disgust.

Taking notice in his reaction, Yusuke commented, "What?! They're just having a good screw!"

Immediately following the comment, there was a moment of silence in which Toguro gave Bui one of those "What-are-you-teaching-my-child?" looks. Except this was a lot dirtier. Bui casually closed the book when he noticed the look, and handed Across the Lay over in silence. Karasu however, was so stunned at Yusuke's comment that his mouth hung open so wide that his mask was actually hanging off his face.

After taking the book from Bui, Toguro grabbed Yusuke's wrist and dragged her out of the room. Yusuke was shocked by this and instantly demanded, "What did I do?" Of course, no reply came. Deciding not to push her luck, or chance another encounter with the Elder Toguro, Yusuke went peacefully.

Once they were back in Toguro's room, unsurprisingly, Yusuke was shoved back into the closet (after handing over the bellhop uniform). Toguro didn't want an explanation, and didn't give any punishments, Yusuke was a little surprised by this to say the least. She reflected on it some after being put back in the closet but soon got bored and tried to count the number of dots that were on the ceiling, but lost count after 792 when her attention wandered again. She zoned out after that, completely unaware of how much time passed or how hungry she got or how badly she'd eventually need the bathroom. Sleep eventually followed.

The mirror was dancing around her now, not touching her, but coming too close. It came close then moved away only to leap at her again. The entire time that this was happening, her twisted reflection would smile coyly at her when she approached, then as she pulled away with the mirror she would seem to laugh and tease Yusuke while playing with her white hair, her purple and red eyes dancing with mirth the entire time.

Yusuke swung at the mirror each time it came close, trying to break the horrible thing, shatter the image that was yet wasn't her reflection. Eventually getting fed up with the dancing mirror that never got close enough, Yusuke prepared to fire her spirit gun at the damn thing.

As she powered up her trusty index finger, the mirror once again began one of its teasing fly-bys. Raising her finger so that it pointed at the swiftly descending mirror, Yusuke released the bullet with her usual shout of "Spirit Gun!" Something was wrong though, she could feel it in the energy... it felt... wrong! She wasn't using spirit energy at all, but what was it?

As expected, the mirror was blown apart by the blast, but as it had before, it reformed itself. This time however, the reflection was laughing her head off. As Yusuke watched, the mirror glided over to her yet again, only this time it stopped before her. Then, before the girl's eyes, she watched as the image lost some of her white hair just for it to be replaced by several strands of pink hair!

Yusuke's scream filled the surrounding area and filled the darkness of her mind.

Toguro leaned back into the couch he currently occupied and wondered how long the peace and quiet was going to last. Yusuke had just been too quiet, too calm for the past few hours, it was bound to break soon.

A slight stir of energy from the closet attracted his attention and he got up to see what was wrong now. On the way to the closet that Yusuke was in though, he noticed an irregularity in the energy, it didn't feel like the energy that the girl usually commanded. No, this felt almost demonic.

Suddenly, the door of the closet shattered as a blast tore through it!

Everyone: (is sitting around Saria)

Tori: Is that where it ends?!? Did Yusuke blow up or something?

SA and Zas: SHHH! Don't ruin it!

Nova: La la la la !

Saria: Sorry to do this, but Nova and I agree that we need to set a minimum for reviews before we post the next chapter within a certain time frame. We now agreed that if we don't get 5 reviews at least, then the next update won't come for a long time unless we get more reviews. SORRY!!!


	20. Ch 20 Lordinir

Saria: (is playing with a tennis ball)

Nova: Be careful with that!

Saria: OK! (starts throwing the ball back and forth with Zas) LOOK OUT! (the ball hits Nova's computer)

Saria, Zas, and Tori: 0.0

SA: eo

Nova: ... ERrrrrrr!!

Saria: Heh heh... RUN!!! (she and her three counter parts run from the room, Saria holding her own computer) Sorry! Now, before Nova goes nuclear, lets start the fic. And if you haven't realized this yet from past chapters, we don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, but we're working on that. The picketing will have to eventually work, now I just have to find the right TV station...

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Splinters from the door were flying everywhere as the blast of demonic energy ripped its way out. Toguro received a face full of said splinters, unfortunately, due to his ever present sunglasses, none went into his eyes. So, he saw it when Yusuke came flying out of the closet like a bat out of hell.

Throwing out his arms, he attempted to grab the child as she ran past but found that she was too fast for him. And with his face looking as though he'd just wrestled a porcupine, he wasn't going after her. At this point, he made a phone call.

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Her breath was coming in gasps and she continued to run. When she felt she couldn't go much farther, Yusuke took that opportunity to climb a tree. Once she was a good ways up, she sat with her back against the trunk and looked around, feeling paranoia really begin to take root. All her senses were on high alert, every color and sound seemed magnified and hurt her head. She could even smell it when someone got close to her hiding place.

An hour slowly passed, and little by little, Yusuke felt herself calm down as the adrenaline and shock wore off. She eventually found herself not so worried about the mirror, but of what Toguro was going to do to her.

About that time, Yusuke spotted Karasu and Bui, they were almost two hundred feet away from the base of her tree. Toguro must have obviously sent them to look for her. Well, she knew one thing about these such things, if she could see them, then they could see her. And, as silently as she could, she climbed higher into the tree, trying to get some cover between herself and the other two. At about two hundred and fifty feet, the tree reached its maximum height, so Yusuke found herself sitting in a nest of sorts at the absolute top.

"Fancy meeting you here!" A now familiar voice behind her said.

Yusuke lost her balance when the voice spoke, mainly because she was a still a little on edge.

"Woah, watch it now. There's no river to catch ya this time," the crazy red head stated as he reached out and grabbed her arm, quickly helping her rebalance on the tree. "As I said before, fancy meeting you here, I thought you were being punished."

"I was," Yusuke replied.

"Oh, he must have gone easy with you then. What did you get, a whupping?"

"No, actually I got locked in a closet then chased by his brother," Yusuke replied just as she noticed that Jin wasn't standing on a branch or anything, he was simply hovering there.

"Geez, harsh." With that, Jin sat, in the air.

"How are you doing that?" Yusuke asked when she felt her curiosity really rise when Jin did what seemed so impossible. Even Bui couldn't do that without using a LOT of energy, though he often did it when he wasn't wearing his armor. This guy didn't look like he was using much energy at all.

"What? Oh, you mean the flying? I'm a wind master of course! Would you like to try it?"

Yusuke wasn't aware of nodding, but Jin immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her up into the air. A rather large gust of wind hit them then, and before Yusuke's eyes, they flew up, out of the cover of the trees. Seconds later, the island was a far beneath them and Yusuke was so close to the clouds that she could touch them! It was extremely thrilling! Jin stopped there for a minute to allow her to get her bearings before taking off again, this time flying in circles, doing dives, steep climbs, even free falls and flips. Then he climbed back up, this time over the cloud cover, and Yusuke saw the sun in all its glory as well as the blue sky. A gentle breeze blew by, picking up her pink hair and sending it flying everywhere and Yusuke felt her heart become truly happy, something she didn't think that she'd ever really experienced even before Toguro had caught her or she'd put on her mask.

Jin ended up being really good company. He flew them around for hours and talked to her until she eventually began to converse with him as well. He told her about his life as a Shinobi, the Demon World (or the Makai as he called it). He talked about how he grew up, training, and the hopes he and his team had for winning the tournament. Yusuke, surprisingly enough, understood their wish for a land of their own and their want for "the light". She soon told him about growing up, fighting, being taken away by Toguro and enslaved. When Jin asked her what her parents were like, she had fallen quiet for a minute before replying that her mother wasn't a very good parent, she probably didn't even remember having a child for that matter. Her father had never been there. Jin was sympathetic to not having a father, and told her about his father, a demon lord, who had been gravely disappointed in Jin's power level but was still good to him. His mother had died when he was really young.

Yusuke, who had found herself comfortable with Jin not long after they started talking, it felt as though he were her brother by the time they went back down to the island. It was almost like he was her demon double if she'd been born male.

Before taking Yusuke back to the hotel, Jin made sure they visited his favorite place on the island, the taller of the two rock spires. They had been in the air hours by then, and Yusuke stumbled a bit when they landed, but the view was still breath taking. Surprisingly enough to the girl, the top of the rock wasn't plain and bare, there were wild flowers she'd never seen before growing here. Jin explained that these were Lordinirs, a rare flower in the Makai that grew only in higher places. He then picked one of the pink and green blossoms and wove it into her hair when she wasn't looking.

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Karasu and Bui were really beginning to panic. They had been scouring the island for Yusuke for almost three hours and they still didn't have the faintest idea as to where she was. Now as they moved down the hall toward Toguro's room to report that they couldn't find her, Karasu mentally cursed Yusuke with every name he could think of to call the girl, Bui wondered if he'd have time to write a last will and testament.

Both however shared one thought and prayer, 'It'll take a miracle to save us now, please let fate be generous.' Their prayer was answered.

Down the hall from them, Yusuke flew through an open window and landed a little roughly on the carpeted floor. Her hair was wild, her cheeks looked like they'd had a good amount of sun, and her eyes were sparkling as though she'd just had the time of her life.

Bui noticed all these things and wondered what she'd been up to as Karasu blew out a breath of relief upon spying her.

"Where have you been?" he demanded as he rushed at Yusuke and grabbed her shoulders and started to shake. Then Karasu realized something, "And since when did you know how to fly?"

The pink haired girl just smiled a strange smile at Karasu and replied, "S-e-c-r-e-t."

"Never mind that," Bui snapped at Karasu when he noticed he was about to shake her again. "What's important now is taking her back to Toguro or he'll have all our hides."

Karasu needed no more prompting as he immediately handed the girl to Bui who carried her like a child back to Toguro's door. Bui personally hoped that Toguro wouldn't be there so he could talk to the girl for a few minutes before she was locked up again.

Thankfully, Toguro wasn't in his room when they got there (about fifteen seconds later). Standing outside the door, still holding Yusuke, Bui decided to talk before he lost courage.

"Yusuke, what was it you were saying in our room several nights ago about us working together to get rid of Toguro?"

Karasu immediately butted in of course. "Surely you aren't considering her proposal!"

"Why not?" Yusuke hissed at Karasu. "Haven't you realized that he makes us compete against each other all the time? Why is it that we train alone, and Toguro doesn't step in to fight us, or even watch that often? The last time he officially fought me was almost two weeks ago, and he was at least at fifty percent strength! He makes us fight each other all the time, makes sure those of us that get along the least are the ones stuck together."

Bui shifted the girl slightly once she finished her speech, but didn't set her down. Neither of the other two could see it, but what Yusuke said made perfect sense! Toguro did keep them fighting, and when he handcuffed Yusuke to one of them, rather than choose him, the one she got along with better, he had chosen Karasu, and those two had clashed since the day that Yusuke had been brought in. Toguro knew that well.

"Ridiculous," Karasu said, but the entire company knew he wasn't so certain. There was an inconsistency in his usual voice that screamed of him being unsure.

'I'll work on him later' Bui thought. "Yusuke, listen. Don't try anymore stunts or cause anymore trouble. Toguro's patience, and tolerance, isn't going to last much longer. Behave yourself."

Just as Yusuke nodded, Toguro appeared from the direction of the elevator carrying a box. Upon seeing the trio standing outside his door, he nodded and entered the room, Bui and Karasu following, and Yusuke, who was still being carried by Bui, didn't have much say in the matter.

Toguro led the way back to the closet that he'd kept Yusuke in. The door had already been replaced and now looked a lot more solid than the previous one had. Bui set the girl down when Toguro turned his back for a second and gently squeezed her shoulder, his own way of saying "good luck". Yusuke felt the squeeze and moved her shoulder minutely to tell Bui that she'd understood.

The younger Toguro had then opened the box and pulled out what looked like a white jacket with a lot of strings. He tossed it to Karasu and simply said, "Put it on her," before turning back to the box and removing more stuff that was immediately blocked from sight by his body.

The item that Toguro had passed to Karasu ended up being a teenager size straight jacket. If any of them had doubts that Toguro was trying to make them fight, they died fast.

Yusuke shot a look that screamed, "You had better make this look good," before throwing a fit that Bui tried to "restrain" her so Karasu could put on the jacket. After several minutes, the jacket had been pulled over Yusuke's head and one of her arms had been shoved into one of the sleeves. Toguro had joined them then and had shoved Yusuke's other arm through the other sleeve and held her firmly as Karasu laced up then tied the jacket. When he was done, she was shoved back into the closet.

Yusuke stared at the door and still couldn't believe how well Karasu and Bui had acted that out. On the surface, it looked as though Bui had tried to restrain her, but his effort was thoroughly theatrical. And Karasu, though it looked like he had tied the jacket tightly and securely, had actually not pulled that much on her arms. True the jacket was on and she couldn't remove it, but it wasn't put on in such a way that she couldn't completely not move her arms or feel much if any discomfort in them. Things were starting to look up.

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As Bui and Karasu walked back to their room, Bui noticed that Karasu was holding a flower in his hand, a beautiful pink and green flower. It was a Lordinir!

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"Yusuke had it in her hair. I removed it right when I handed her to you."

"Where do you think she found it?"

"I smell another on this flower. I believe that it was given to her by a demon."

"We can't let Toguro find out! How long do you think she's had it there?"

Karasu stopped and considered for a few minutes before answering. "Probably only a few minutes. Not enough for anything to do anything to her."

The two stared at the flower though, even after they had returned to their room. Both knew of the powerful promise that came with the flower, a promise of eternal friendship and protection. Somewhere on this island, a demon had promised to protect Yusuke with his life if she should ever need it. This meant another ally that could probably help them with their wish to defeat Toguro.

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Saria: So... (hears a creak) Is that her?!? (is whispering)

Tori: If it is, I'm prepared... (holds up a plate of brownies and practices begging for forgiveness)

SA: Knock it off! (hits Tori on the head with the 50 pound mallet)

Zas: (stares up at Saria) You need to relax... We have a great hiding spot, she'll never find us.

SA: (rolls her eyes) We're "hiding" in the middle of the stairs on the fifth floor. Real hard to find.

Nova: (storms on the stairs) AND DON'T FORGET TO TELL THEM TO REVIEW!!

Saria, SA, Tori, and Zas: (all jump up and run screaming down the stairs)

Nova: What?


	21. Ch 21 Journey Through the Mirror

Tori: (appears on stage, wading through cheesecake piled chest deep) Seeing how things might get hectic later, here's the disclaimer. Saria doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho and attempting to bribe the owners with cheesecake didn't work...(writes a record for the event)

Saria: Oh, and tell them that if they review, they get free cheesecake! You heard right! FREE CHEESECAKE!!! I, unfortunately, am allergic to cheese and Nova, Tori, and SA don't like it. Zas on the other hand...

Zas: (comes running in, well, waddling to be accurate because he is so full of the cake) NOOOOOO!! DON'T GIVE AWAY THE CHEESECAKE!!!! (starts grabbing cheesecake and shoving it down his throat)

SA and Nova: (both walk in complaining about the cheesecake and see Zas stuffing himself)

SA: That's disgusting...

Nova: (turns green and wades out of the room)

SA: Shouldn't you stop him?

Saria: Nah... He'll stop sooner or later. Besides, he couldn't eat all of this cheesecake if he tried. (sees Zas shove three more into his mouth) O..k... He's trying. But we still have all the other rooms in the house filled plus the cars, attic, garage, and the bathrooms and closets.

Nova: You needn't worry about the bathrooms, he already cleaned those out.

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Yusuke had been in the closet for a good six hours before Toguro came in and let her have a bathroom break(after releasing her from the straight jacket of course). By then it was late, almost 10 pm, it wouldn't have seemed so late "pre-capture by Toguro" for Yusuke, but now she was used to going to bed as early as she could. Also, she'd had nothing to do for the last six hours except stare at the walls and sing songs, she had no clue that she had known over thirty versus to "The Wheels on the Bus". She had even completed the hundred versus for "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall", several times(unbeknownst to Yusuke, this drove Toguro absolutely insane, so much in fact that he had to leave the room several times to keep from letting her off punishment IF SHE WOULD JUST SHUT UP!!!!). So she felt extremely exhausted as she stumbled to the bathroom.

Almost immediately, a new problem surfaced, Toguro had followed her into the bathroom!

At first, Yusuke felt he hadn't been paying attention to what he was doing and just followed her. But, after a few seconds when he didn't leave, she became concerned.

"Don't you need to use the bathroom?" he asked when he noticed she wasn't doing anything.

"Yeah, but not with you here," Yusuke replied with a slightly cheeky grin.

"I'm not letting you escape again, even if that means having to watch you ALL the time."

"No way!" Yusuke replied in disbelief, despite the cheeky grin still planted on her face. "You're kidding me, right?"

Toguro's silence said otherwise.

"You're not kidding?!?" The smile came right off her face. "But you're going to see me... naked!"

Without saying a word, Toguro averted his eyes and tried to hide the huge sweatdrop that had just formed on the back of his head.

_Ten minutes and a whole lot of accusations of looking later_

The two emerged from the bathroom, both with equally red faces though Yusuke didn't notice Toguro's due to the fact that he stood behind her. He made sure as he directed her out to the living room that she remained in front of him.

"Enjoying the view you perv?" Yusuke asked with a touch of bitterness in her tone.

Toguro didn't answer at first, then he said, "Do you want me to take away your bathroom privileges?"

Yusuke chose that moment to shut up and look straight forward, for an entire thirty seconds (the time it took for her brain to comprehend one fact) "Wouldn't you have to clean up the mess?" she asked sarcastically with her cheeky grin once again in place.

"No, you'll just have to stay in your own filth for the duration of our stay." Yusuke shuddered at the thought.

The next moment, she was forced to sit at the table again and Toguro dropped a sandwich in front of her. This reminded Yusuke a little of what the sandwich on the boat, and what happened afterwards.

Pocking the sandwich slightly with her finger, she asked uncertainly, "Are you sure that it's food-poisoningproof? It looks questionable to me."

"Just eat it!" Toguro replied in exasperation.

Snapping her mouth shut, she grudgingly unwrapped the package and took small bites out of the sandwich. It was gone soon enough and not long after that, Yusuke was back in the closet. And wearing that damn straight jacket again!

Setting in for a long wait, Yusuke decided to try her hand at making up plays to entertain herself during those long, tedious hours. So far, she'd come up with about one act, and most of the lines were "I am GOD!"

Of course, she could be heard on the other side of the door, and Toguro left about ten minutes into the play. He could only stand so much of that torture. She screamed continuously "I am GOD!" then changed her tone and said some random insult such as "You are a child's plaything!" or "You are monkey's butt in the shower!"

Yusuke kept this play going for about 15 minutes after Toguro left (though she didn't know he'd left, she was in the closet). She had just managed to get 5 minutes into act two, when she felt sleep push at the back of her eyes. Shaking the feeling off, she gave herself a quick slap on the face (using the wall as her hand of course), and sat up.

"Must...not...sleep..." she murmured, as she pushed herself to keep going with the play.

Act two went by without any further problems, act three was a little more difficult, but not as bad as acts four and five. Finally, by act six, sleep caught her, mid-line.

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Once more, the void surrounded her, and once more Yusuke felt the presences through the cracks of her defense. They were talking softly, their voices so quiet that she could only hear a faint muttering, no words. She could tell though, that they were planning something, something in the way their voices sounded felt conspiratorial.

Curiosity always outweighed cautiousness for Yusuke, she knew it though she'd never admit it. So, when she heard the voices, it was only a matter of minutes before curiosity drove her to push herself to the edges of the walls she'd constructed around her mind. As she drew closer, the voices only seemed to get softer, and though she got closer and closer, she could never quite make out what was being said. Then, too suddenly, the voices stopped.

'Oh no!' Yusuke thought as six hands shoved themselves through the cracks and tried to grab her. Two of them just barely brushed her arm and hair, but Yusuke was back pedaling already. That's when she realized something horrible. 'I can't move my arms!'

Her back pedal soon ended though when she ran into something that felt icy and began to pull her through. Turning her head slightly, she screamed at the sight of the dark mirror that had haunted her. Even as she struggled, Yusuke felt herself being pulled through the mirror, its iciness freezing her to the core.

Closing her eyes, unknowing of what to expect, she tried to push the frigidness from her mind and body. This however, didn't last long because the iciness fled from her body as she fell out on the other side of the mirror. She hit the ground seconds later with an undignified 'THUMP'.

Opening her eyes, she saw that not only was she out of the closet again, but she was now faintly glowing an eerie shade of red. Heart racing, she jumped to her feet, ignoring the straight jacket, and began to run around the room like a chicken with its head cut off, only thing was, her head was still attached, only it was being screamed off.

Seconds later, a door opened and she turned her head, right as she ran onto the balcony and hit the rail. It took her only moments to realize that she'd just been flipped off the balcony of the sixteenth floor. This of course, got her screaming again.

"OOHHH SHHIITT!!" she screamed, right as a wind caught her.

"What do you think you're doing?! You're not a wind master so you shouldn't come flying out of windows like that!!!" Yusuke recognized Jin, who now was holding Yusuke bridal style, and he seemed a bit confused and perturbed (but not as much as Yusuke was). "And what's with this strange style of clothing? You know you can't move your arms in it." He then proceeded to assist Yusuke in removing the straight jacket, as soon as they were on the ground.

"THANK GOD FOR YOU, JIN!!!" Yusuke yelled as she grabbed Jin and pulled him into a bone crushing hug the second she was free.

She was still hugging him when a voice behind her yelled out, "Let go of him, dimwit, before you kill him."

Yusuke instantly looked at Jin's face, and seeing that it was beginning to turn purple, she quickly let go. Turning around, she saw Genkai standing there, a slight smirk on her face revealing she'd been the one who had spoken.

"Don't tell me I interrupted something?" Yusuke blushed at Genkai's question and hid her face in her hands. "I thought so."

Jin, by then, had just recovered from his near strangling experience and chose that time to speak. "You pack a mighty bear hug Yusuke!" Jin accompanied this statement with a pat on the back.

"Yes, now if you don't mind, I have some important business with Yusuke. I recommend that you go somewhere that not many know of you. Toguro might come looking for you in a few hours. If he does, you haven't seen either of us." Genkai said quietly to Jin as she grabbed the girl's hand a pulled her toward the forest.

Unknown to all of them, Toguro had seen the whole scene from up on his balcony. A smirk rode up his lips as he saw the hag grab Yusuke and pull her toward the forest as the red headed wind master took flight and headed for the taller pillar of rock. The time had come.

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Yusuke had just recovered from her blushing state and was once again demanding an explanation. "Where are we going you old hag?" Yusuke demanded as she once more tried to pry her hands from Genkai's withered old one. How strong could this hag still be?!? Very strong apparently.

After going a considerable distance from the hotel, Genkai stopped and released Yusuke's hand. As Yusuke rubbed her aching appendage, she began to wonder why Genkai looked a little sad. The sadness was well hidden, but still there.

"Well?" Yusuke demanded. "Why'd you bring me here?"

"Listen up slacker," Genkai replied angrily. "I'm about to give you all you need to defeat Toguro once and for all, but if you don't want it, fine by me!"

Yusuke's full and rapt attention had been bought with the words "defeat Toguro". She now watched Genkai with interest in her eyes and waited for her to continue.

"Now I see that I have your attention, let's continue. The final test for becoming a psychic is that you have to absorb the energy of your master and make it your own." With that, Genkai raised her hands and in them appeared a medium sized ball of energy that shined brilliantly.

Yusuke stared at the ball in shock, even as Genkai continued. "This is the secret of my power, Spirit Wave Orb! For years I toiled with this creation, energy of the body and the mind concentrated into the smallest of spaces. It is both part of and separate from me, and it could power a whole city block! Your test is to incorporate this into your own body, and hope it doesn't tear you apart. The agony of this absorption could go on for hours, or even days. If your body isn't strong enough, you'll be ripped apart from the inside, and all you will pray for is a quicker death."

"Yeah, yeah, grandma, I hear you. Bring it on already." Yusuke said. "But, if it's as exciting as you say, maybe I should order up two!"

"Don't get too cocky now," Genkai warned.

The orb of energy was then handed to Yusuke, who took a second to stare at it further. 'This could be what either makes my freedom or death a reality. I hope it works,' Yusuke thought as she shoved the energy without any further hesitation into her chest. Nothing happened.

After a few more seconds of nothing, Yusuke began to gloat a little, "I thought you said this was supposed to hurt or some..th... AAAUUUUGGHHH!!" Blood suddenly exploded from a point on her neck.

Minutes later, Yusuke's head began to clear, long enough for her to get a detailed feel of the pain that tore through her. It felt as though a vice was constricting her lungs, making her unable to breathe. At the same time, an angry army of knives shot through her veins and heart, searing and stabbing every part of her body at once. Her head felt as though it was packing a sledgehammer that was continuously pounding against the side of her skull, trying to break free.

This went on for ten minutes while Yusuke was thrashing on the ground violently before Genkai decided it wasn't right. Yusuke had been training under Toguro for the past several months, and her body just wasn't prepared for the kind of beating it receiving. Pushing Yusuke onto her back, Genkai reached out with her power to try to remove the energy orb. Right as it slipped back into her hands though, Yusuke grabbed Genkai's arm and pulled the arms back.

"Give that back to me, you old hag!" Yusuke screamed.

"No, you're not prepared for this yet."

"I'll determine what I'm not prepared for! Now GIVE IT TO ME!!" Yusuke screamed as she wrenched the orb back and shoved it back into her chest.

The next hour, Yusuke screamed, thrashed, clawed, swore up and down, and did anything she could to get her mind off the pain. Genkai, on the other hand, watched her student scream in the early hours of the morning, and even though her heart went out to Yusuke, she kept a straight face.

A figure began approaching from inside the forest, feeling Yusuke finally beginning to win the battle. Genkai, when she noticed the figure, left Yusuke's side and approached the figure herself.

"I've been expecting this from you, Genkai," Toguro said deeply. "Trying to help your precious apprentice, giving her your power, all so she could defeat me."

"You know how I feel about taking other people's work. Besides, I have a feeling that you had near nothing to do with the training Yusuke went under in your compound. Now, why did you take her? Why did you bring her here?"

"That is none of your concern now, Genkai. You've served your purpose." With that, Toguro powered up to 75. "Consider yourself lucky, Genkai. This is 75 of my power, not even Yusuke has seen this level, or fought, it yet. Though, with the boost you just gave her, I'm pretty sure that she'll be fighting it not too long from now. HAA HA!"

Yusuke believed she was succeeding. All around her, she felt the pain starting to fade and everything started to come into focus again. But she still couldn't move! Looking around, she noticed Genkai was standing in a defensive position... IN FRONT OF A VERY RIPPED TOGURO!!

"No..." she cried weakly, trying to shove herself up as she watched the fight begin. Toguro threw a hard punch and followed with a kick, Genkai dodged both before delivering an energy charged blow to Toguro's left shoulder as he struck out with his right. Yusuke was relieved though when he missed, or she thought he missed. The way Genkai grabbed her own shoulder said otherwise. This was not good.

Yusuke watched, feeling angry and helpless, even as she managed to force herself to her knees, as Toguro punched a large crater in the ground where Genkai had stood a mere second ago. Then, right as she gained her feet, Toguro planted the blow into Genkai's torso. Then, for a split second, nothing happened as Yusuke watched Genkai fall in slow motion.

Shoving herself forward hard, Yusuke stumbled to where her fallen teacher lay. Wrapping her arms around the small woman's body, Yusuke felt a tear begin to slide down her cheek.

"Yusuke..." the weak voice said quietly. "Don't let yourself become like Toguro. You'll only... suffer more... than you... already...have..."

Yusuke watched her teacher's old body finally fail and listened to her last words. She didn't notice Toguro power down and approach her, she only knew the pain in her heart made from Genkai's death.

Toguro then grabbed Yusuke and pulled her to her feet again and forced her to let go of Genkai's cooling body. The instant reaction from Yusuke had been to strike out against this, but her hands were effectively trapped by one of Toguro's as he pulled her away, heading back for the hotel. Before they were even halfway there though, Yusuke's struggles ended as the shock hit her hard and mixed with her fatigued body. She became dead to the world at that second and collapsed. Toguro simply picked the girl up and carried her the rest of the way back. She was conscious the entire way, but her body refused to move.

Back in his room, Bui was surprised when Toguro simply barged in and shoved Yusuke into his arms. He left after giving a single order, "Don't let her out of your sight."

The girl was awake, but seemed to be really out of it.

"Yusuke, what happened?" Bui demanded as he set her down on the couch but he received no answer. Yusuke had fallen asleep.

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Nova: Oh, and before we forget, we don't own '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall',

Saria: Or the 'Wheels on the Bus',

Zas: (dressed up as Buzz Lightyear with a raygun in hand) Or how can you forget Toystory? We don't own it either.

Saria: Oh, and just so you remember, if you review

Saria, Nova, SA, and Tori: YOU GET FREE CHEESECAKE!!!! And another chapter sooner.

Zas: NNNOOOOOO! NOT THE CHEESECAKE!!!! WAAAHHHH!!!!


	22. Ch 22 Now Ya Gone 'N Done It

Nova: Sorry for the delay in updates, but we've been sick.

Saria: I'm STILL sick, stupid dorms. (mumbles) If one person gets sick, everyone gets sick...

Tori: La la la la! (Comes in carrying a tray, to Saria) Here's your hot chocolate, though I don't think it's the best thing for you now. (Walks over to Nova) And here's your latte.

Nova: Latte?!? Who ordered a latte? I asked for hot tea! Waaahhhhh! Fine, I'll go make it myself. (Leaves room, a few seconds later you hear cabinets slamming in the background)

Tori: (sweatdrop)

Saria: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, but I'm confident that I will eventually by this next century, Muh-ha-ha-ha! However, at the moment, I DO own this version of female Yusuke, any original characters, and my chocolate! (drools into cup of hot chocolate) AH-CHOOOO!

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Yusuke was sailing through the land of darkness and abyss. She was wallowing in her own sorrow, feeling helpless, hopeless, and hollow. Throughout this though, she kept going through her memories of Genkai.

After mulling over and over these memories for hours upon hours, for what seemed like days (it actually was days of course), Yusuke felt herself break down and refuse to do anything. Then, logic kicked in (bad logic). She figured sleeping was doing something, so she wasn't going to do it anymore.

Opening her eyes, she stared up at the ceiling. Realizing how cold it was, she wrapped the blanket closer to herself and curled into a fetal position while shivering. Nonchalantly, she rolled onto her side just find herself face-to-face with Bui! Eyes widening slightly, she rolled over onto her other side and immediately spotted Karasu, writing a letter of some sort. Yusuke then rolled back onto her back and stared at the ceiling, going back into La la land, thinking back on Genkai.

_Five minutes later_

Yusuke sat bolt upright in the bed, the covers falling off of her.

"Finally decided to get your butt out of bed?" Karasu asked as he turned to put the card he had been writing on into a bouquet of black roses.

"I think I'm going to throw up..." Yusuke mumbled as she shot out of the bed toward the bathroom.

Karasu instantly started screaming when he heard this comment, his hair actually standing on end. His antics of course, roused Bui, who woke to find Yusuke missing.

Jumping from the bed, he raced to the balcony to see if she was there. Until he heard Karasu screaming, "DON'T THROW UP ON ME!!!", he was in a frenzy to find her. Upon hearing the comment however, he calmed down and placidly walked to the bathroom where he found her dry-heaving into the toilet. He noticed though, that while she was doing this, tears were falling from her eyes.

Yusuke stood motionless for a few seconds, causing Bui to worry about the abruptness with which she'd stopped.

In an instant, Yusuke had pushed herself away from the commode, and fell to the floor in a heap. Tears were flowing and she was reduced to sobs.

_One Hour Later_

Bui saw that Yusuke was beginning to calm, and chose that moment to lift her gently off of the floor. He put her onto her feet then, while keeping his hands on her shoulders to hold her up, walked her out to the main room where Karasu sat at a lopsided coffee table with food on it. There was ramen (this one's for you Pat pat!!), sushi, and white rice. This was a meal Yusuke would have downed-it-all not even three months ago, but now, while she suffered in her own little hell, she just wasn't hungry for it.

Bui immediately shoved Yusuke down before her own little, steaming bowl of ramen while he sat next to her and helped himself to his own ramen and some sushi. Karasu on the other hand, was more finicky and kept looking at her with a paranoid look. Yusuke however, didn't notice these looks though, because she was looking down at her slowly cooling noodles.

_Three Hours Later_

Karasu and Bui had long finished eating. Now they stared at Yusuke who in turn, stared at her stone cold noodles. The noise of a door opening caused everyone to turn and stare at the door, except Yusuke who continued to stare at the ramen.

Neither Karasu nor Bui were surprised to see Toguro (Yusuke evidently wasn't because she wasn't even paying attention).

The first thing that Toguro noticed was that Yusuke was up. The second thing was the full bowl in front of her and he felt his impatience rise. Crossing the room to loom over the child, he stood before the girl (right behind a slightly nervous Karasu whose eyes bulged a bit). Yusuke was still oblivious to all of this, keeping her glued to the bowl, marinating in her own self pity.

At first, Toguro went for a more subtle means of catching Yusuke's attention by clearing his throat... rather loudly. Bui then nudged Yusuke a little, earning dirty look from Yusuke, before she looked up at Toguro. Even before she even realized who was standing over her (she did know) and looking like he was about to say something, she looked down at her wrinkled and dirt covered uniform. Toguro snapped his mouth shut and his lips became a straight line of frustration.

"Yusuke?" Toguro said in a gruff voice while gritting his teeth.

"Go away, leave me alone," Yusuke replied.

Toguro walked slowly, deliberately over to Yusuke and grabbed her by the front of her uniform. Yusuke stared at him at first in shock before turning her head away as a single tear dripped onto his hand. Toguro, in surprise, dropped the girl.

Yusuke then started banging her head on the dangerously lopsided table, punishing herself for letting her weakness be seen. The "bump bump bump" of her head hitting the table caused the bowl of cold ramen to turn over. Within seconds, Karasu looked like he wet his pants, Bui was on the other side of the room, and Yusuke continued slamming her head into the slush even as Toguro tried to pull her away from the table.

It took only moments for Toguro to wrestle Yusuke away and stowed her under one arm. Giving Bui "the look", he waited as Bui trudged over to him. Toguro then shoved the wiggling Yusuke (the wiggling being a vain effort to get away from Toguro), into Bui's arms.

"Make sure she eats," he gritted, then turned and left. Behind his back, Yusuke made faces and attempted to kick him.

Yusuke calmed down some once Toguro was gone again, enough that Bui set her back down. Karasu left the room immediately after Yusuke was put down.

"What was that about Yusuke?" Bui demanded.

"I don't want to talk about it. Leave me alone." Yusuke then tried to walk away.

"Oh no you don't," Bui said as he grabbed her arm and shoved her down into the couch. Yusuke tried to make a swing at him with her other arm, but was unsuccessful. "Hey, hey, I'm not the enemy!" Bui exclaimed as he grabbed her other arm and attempted to calm her down. Surprisingly enough, Yusuke stopped trying to kick or punch, but the dirty look didn't fall from her face.

About that time, Karasu arrived back in the room, this time with a bowl of apple sauce in hand. And the spoon to accompany it. He set the bowl and spoon down on the table in front of Yusuke then moved to the other side of the room. Yusuke refused to touch the bowl, choosing to instead stare out the window at the late evening sun.

"Yusuke, eat it," Bui said.

"Not hungry," Yusuke answered as she continued to stare out the window.

"Then eat it for our peace of mind," 'and safety of body,' he thought as he pictured Toguro beating on him for not making Yusuke eat.

"No," was the reply.

Karasu chose that time to move back to their side of the room as Bui picked up the spoon and dipped it into the apple sauce. Yusuke gave Bui a "You-do-that-you're-dead" look. "You need to eat something," he said as he shoved it in her face.

_Many hours later_

Yusuke sat up in the bed that she was once again sharing with Bui. Earlier that day, Bui had force fed the apple sauce to her. It had started out easy enough; she simply refused to open her mouth. By the end, it was a fiasco involving Karasu holding her down while Bui forced her mouth open. She had hated every minute of it, and in the end, she just took the miserable bites.

"Yusuke, lie down," came Bui's tired voice.

Yusuke, not feeling like starting another fight, did so, turning to stare out the window.

"Lie still."

Ignoring his comment, Yusuke kept her eyes fixed on the window when she noticed that something was fluttering just outside the window. Easing slightly off the bed, she crept over to the window, hoping to God it was both Jin and not Jin at the same time. She didn't want to see a very angry Bui swinging his axe at Jin. She gently pushed the window open and at that instant, a light blue little bird/rabbit with a turquoise belly and bright-reflective yellow hair popped through and landed in her hair, dropping a letter into her hands.

"Yusuke, if you jump out that window, I'm going to kick your ass!" Bui called out.

Yusuke shut the window immediately. Using the light that traveled in through the window to see, she opened the letter and read.

_Dear Yusuke_

_I hope this letter finds you well, though you're probably tearing yourself up really bad about Genkai, right? Any who, I wrote this to let you know there is nothing to worry about. Genkai has been restored to life, like you were, and no, there was no kissing involved this time so don't ask if I got pictures of Kuwabara meeting lips._

_Now, you're probably wondering what the strange little creature is that delivered the message. Congratulations Yusuke, that is your spirit beast, Puu. Everyone over here almost died of laughter when he hatched; Botan was expecting scales and beady eyes._

_Keep your spirits up Yusuke; we're ready to help you when you feel the time is right._

_-The Great and Mighty Koenma_

Yusuke laughed slightly at the letter, Koenma hadn't changed a bit! Still, she would have liked pictures of Kuwabara kissing Genkai, and the ass-kicking he'd receive afterwards. Then it hit her, the crazy little bird/rabbit that was currently sitting on her head was her spirit beast, her inner self! This was bad! She'd never be able to live this down if word got out, heck, she'd never be able to show her face in public ever again!

Grabbing the spirit animal off her head, she quickly shoved it under the bed then ran to the bathroom then flushed the letter down the toilet. Walking back into the bedroom, she caught Bui as he was about to get out of bed to check on her. Saying nothing, she lay back down and pulled the covers over herself while Bui just lay back down.

'Everything is going to be alright...' Yusuke mentally sighed as she felt relief flood through her. Feeling herself relax for the first time since Toguro had kidnapped her, she drifted off into a happy little slumber.

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"Now is the time, her defenses are nonexistent!" the female voice exclaimed as the three reached out.

"Yes, we need to bring her here now!"

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Yusuke dreamt of the mirror again, only this time it held her actual reflection. As she watched, the figure in the mirror faded into black. Finding it very funny that a mirror didn't have a reflection, Yusuke moved forward to investigate. To her surprise, a reflection did appear, but it was of the other girl! Jumping back in shock and horror, Yusuke watched as the now richly dressed girl pounded against the mirror, trying to get out.

Yusuke's shock and horror quickly dissolved into curiosity as she once again moved closer. Before she could fully investigate, a crack around her mind suddenly widened, letting in blinding and a frigid feeling. That same instant, the mirror exploded, releasing the other girl who grabbed Yusuke and threw her through the crack. The last thing she remembered before blinding pain and coldness overtook her was Bui telling her to be still.

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Yusuke woke momentarily to an unbearable headache as she felt arms enclose around her. The last thing she remembered before drifting back into oblivion was a voice saying, "Welcome home, Yusuke," and a blanket being wrapped around her cold body.

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In the early morning, Bui rolled over and felt the other edge of the bed. It took all of two seconds for the signals reaching his brain to make sense. Yusuke wasn't where she was supposed to be.

Shooting out of the bed, he tore the room apart looking for Yusuke. This woke up Karasu, who, once he realized she was gone, joined in the frantic search for their missing teammate. Bui, remembering that Yusuke had opened the window, opened it to see if Yusuke was outside. As he was about to close the window, a strange blue creature fluttered out the window, squeaking something like "Poo!" as it went.

"We are so dead..." Bui muttered as he watched the thing.

"Now ya gone 'n done it," the window washer said.

Forming his axe, Bui immediately struck the man over the head.

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Saria: That's the end!

Nova: But there was no happy ending!

Saria: Well, that's so people will read our next one, Yusuke, The Girl, The Sequel! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Nova: What's it about Saria? Is it the one where...(Saria covers Nova's mouth with her hand)

Saria: Shhh.(to audience) Thank you for reading my fic, please review, and don't forget about the upcoming sequel!

Saria, Nova, SA, Tori, Zas: YAY!!! AC-CHOOOO! We're going back to bed...


	23. Update

Saria: Good news everyone! I finally got the Sequel up for "Yusuke the Girl"!

Zas: So, if you want to stay on her good side…

SA: You need to read and review…

Tori: (makes puppy dog eyes) PWEASE!?!?


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